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Gloria (27 KP) rated Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders in Books

Jul 18, 2017

Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders

Alicia Gaspar de Alba | 2005 | Fiction & Poetry, Gender Studies

7.0

(1 Ratings)

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A page-turner of frightening speed. (0 more)

A Mystery Unlike Any Other

Gaspar de Alba brings a fine writer's sensitivity and the open heart of her heritage. The result is a novel that takes your breath away, page after page, and grabs your heart.

Desert Blood is a mystery unlike any other. Gripping, heart-wrenching, set against the tough, lacerating reality of border-town engaging mystery, but it is more than well-written entertainment. It is an important book that sheds light on the Juárez murders--the ongoing slaughter of young Mexican women in the border city of Juárez by persons unknown. Desert Blood weaves together its fictional tale and the known facts of these notorious crimes in a way that reveals the cultural and political attitudes that have allowed these murders to continue with the indifference--if not the outright complicity--of Mexican authorities.

Gaspar de Alba not only crafts a suspenseful plot but tackles prejudice in many of its ugly forms: against gays, against Hispanics, against the poor. It's an in-your-face, no-holds-barred story full of brutality, graphic violence, and ultimately, redemption. Offering a powerful depiction of social injustice and serial murder on the U.S.-Mexican border, this is an essential purchase for both mystery and Hispanic fiction collections.