The detective novels
An Easy Thing is the first book to be published by Friction, a new publishing enterprise launched by Respect MP George Galloway and his colleague Ron McKay. The aim of Friction is to bring to British audiences works of fiction and non-fiction from around the world which will appeal to radical and left wing audiences. At a packed launch in a restaurant on Brick Lane, George said that he hoped the Friction imprint will publish ‘books that burn, books that cause controversy and get people talking’.
Their first book sets a high standard. An Easy Thing is the best thriller books written by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, a Mexican writer. Photo is a literary legend in Latin America, but his audience in Britain has been limited to crime novel fan - until now. This book, first published in 1977, is the first of a series of private detective Hector Belascoaran. He is an independent ideas and principles, who is completely different from the majority of the private eye character. Hector has believable and intriguing relationships with friends and family. He is a true complex nature of the motivation, not just an action hero.
But this is not a cynical novel. Hector is helped by a friend, El Cuervo, who runs a night time radio show. This show is based on solidarity. If someone there is a problem in El Salvador called for help all over the airwaves happy. He play the music of sadness and despair, because the very low paid factory workers and lonely heart. He said the station is, ‘the link between the brothers in the depths of the dark’.
The descriptions of a teeming Mexico City are beautiful in places, moving in others, giving top thriller novels a quality unusual in detective thrillers. It’s a pacy, engaging and highly political novel, full of the everyday tragedy of ordinary lives as well as the thrills of the chase. Anyone who is interested in new fiction book, or just a very good read which reveals something of the fascinating country of Mexico, will welcome this book with open arms, although some in authority have proved not to be so keen.