“Castro’s novel shifts seamlessly from deliciously gory horror narrative to family saga to a tale of righteous vengeance.” the queen of the cicadas
THE QUEEN OF THE CICADAS
Castro, V. Flame Tree Press (224 pp.) $14.95 paper | Jun. 22, 2021 978-1-78758-601-7
y o u n g a d u lt
A brutal murder becomes the catalyst for an Indigenous redemption that brings believers together to revive a nearly forgotten religion. Belinda and Hector know the story of La Reina de Las Chicharras all too well. Belinda first heard it during a childhood sleepover: Milagros Santos, an undocumented Mexican farmworker who was lynched by a group of White women in Texas in 1952, now answers to anyone who speaks her new name into a mirror, Bloody Mary–style. Hector bought the property on which the officially unsolved murder took place, and he now feels compelled to return to his curandero heritage after a lifetime spent scorning it. As Belinda and Hector dig deeper into the story, clues point toward a much more intricate tale, one in which Indigenous Mexican religious beliefs survived into the 20th century. Milagros and her twin sister, Concepcion, worshiped Santa Muerte—also known as Mictecacíhuatl, the Queen of the Dead. The ancient deity now answers to the dead woman’s new name, harvesting mortal sacrifices to help revive Milagros as her daughter. When Mictecacíhuatl reveals herself in a viral video, the foundations of individual and institutional faith are tested worldwide, and an unexpected religious revival emerges. The White women responsible for Milagros’ death become the first targets of Mictecacíhuatl’s revenge, sandwiched chronologically between conquistadors and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who prey upon her people. Castro’s novel shifts seamlessly from deliciously gory horror narrative to family saga to a tale of righteous vengeance, all while maintaining its unflinching condemnation of colonialism on both sides of the MexicanAmerican border. A tightly paced story of anti-colonial resistance and shared history that begs to be read in one sitting.
terrorist group called Viboras Rojas, or Red Vipers, seems responsible for an explosion that kills dozens and delays the canal’s construction. Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency is sent there to investigate, and a team of wild horses wouldn’t keep his wife, Marion, from coming along. Bell keeps mighty busy. Within days, he’s “thwarted an assassination attempt and brought a mad bomber to heel,” and he’s just getting started. The detective is exceptionally observant and ingenious. How he survives a catastrophic landslide is such a combination of quick thinking and luck that readers will hold their breath as they turn the pages, only realizing later how unlikely it all is. Meanwhile, Germany conspires with Argentina to severely delay the canal’s opening— Argentina would lose plenty of oceangoing commerce, and as it girds for war in Europe, Germany fears America’s rise as a global power. The proximate villain is Otto Dreissen, who correctly believes that former President Teddy Roosevelt won’t be able to resist traveling to see “the most transformative engineering feat in history…dangers be damned”—and there is danger, since the kaiser has authorized Roosevelt’s assassination. But first Dreissen must arrange an “accident” for Bell, the “man with the nine
THE SABOTEURS
Cussler, Clive & Du Brul, Jack Putnam (400 pp.) $29.00 | May 25, 2021 978-0-593-19122-4 Malign forces want to slow completion of the Panama Canal, but Isaac Bell has plenty to say about that in his 12th tale of derring-do. In 1914, the U.S. is digging an enormous ditch across the mosquito-infested isthmus of Panama, with “mechanical dragons wreathed in steam” ripping out eight tons at a time in the Culebra Cut. Horrific incidents happen, and they’re not always accidents. A mysterious |
kirkus.com
|
fiction
|
15 april 2021
|
21