Intense and gritty, this is a corruption novel of the finest degree. Trevine shouldn't still be dealing with all this but here he is, in the midst of a web.

The book is well written and the basic plot is interesting. However sadly it's drowned under the weight of irrelevant digressions to push home the message about how awful conditions are. I get it - in fact, I got it very early on and didn't need to keep being told anecdote after anecdote. I have just finished a forty minute reading session during which the plot hasn't moved along so much as an inch.

I realise from the other reviews that I'm out of step, but I'm finding it too tedious to continue. Had it been half as long it would have been twice as good, in my opinion. Eventually when horror is heaped on horror, it loses its effect. Personally, when I want to read a factual book, then I read a factual book. Fiction should be able to create an authentic setting as background to a story. In this one, it feels more that the plot is a device - an excuse to give a dissertation on the gangs of Mexico, lightly disguised as a novel. I'm abandoning it at 38%, and won't be posting this review elsewhere since I generally only review books I either finish or at least get past the halfway mark.

Thanks for approving me for it, and I hope it works better for other people than for me. I'd rather not rate it but since NetGalley doesn't allow that, then I'm giving it 3 stars - wrong reader/wrong book.

A tough but impressive read. Carlos Trevino is hired to find Christine, who has been kidnapped in the Mexico of cartels, violence, and corruption. This is not, however, a mystery or a procedural, but more a suspense and meditation on what has happened to a beautiful country. Told from three perspectives, it includes that of Margarito, the Chief of Police who is as corrupt and craven as they come. This is dark, gritty, and quite violent- but realistic. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is not long but it lingers and will make you look at the news differently.

Don't Send Flowers is an exceptional novel that takes place in Eternidad, Mexico on the Gulf of Mexico not far from the U.S. border. Once a sleepy little town, Eternidad has over the last twenty years become the epicenter of drug runners and shady politicians where nothing is sure but death and kickbacks. Margarito has been the chief of police for those twenty years, slowly losing sight of the loyalties and morals he brought with him to the job. Carlos Trevino worked for him, once upon a time. This time they will probably be on opposing sides in the rescue of kidnapped 15 year old Christine De Leon. Once trust is gone it's impossible to have faith in it again. But there is always karma.... Though sometimes it strikes in the middle and catches both ends.

Solares is an author to watch! A superb crime thriller that illustrates the present border conflicts and Mexican cartels.. A worthwhile read.

This book about official corruption at all levels of government, including the army and police, is a hard-hitting crime-noir that's as tough and realistic as the news coming out of Mexico about the June/July 2018 elections. Gangs control the streets and executions occur as easily as lighting a cigarette - sometimes even more easily. Solares has crafted his story around the kidnapping of a sixteen-year old girl, daughter of a fabulously wealthy businessman, and an honest ex-cop's attempts to find and save her. The kidnapping leads Carlos Treviño into what he knows in advance will be a cesspool of greed, duplicity and death. He takes the risk in the hope of giving a better life to his wife, his brother, and the kidnapped girl.
Solares writes with economy and pace, but he has a magic touch as well. In few words he paints descriptions that sizzle; we're never very far from the beating hearts of the characters we follow.
As a writer he takes big risks too, and some of these are challenging. What you might expect as a normal unfurling of a story through Carlos Treviño's POV often shifts into the POV of lesser protagonists. Sometimes entire scenes are portrayed only as dialogue. About halfway through the book the dominant point of view shifts from Treviño's to the appallingly criminal and corrupt antagonist, chief of police Margarito González. These shifts can be disconcerting, but they pay off: the view into the mind and soul of Margarito adds unexpected layers to Don't Send Flowers, making it even more poignant and gripping.
This is a major work.

Don’t Send Flowers 💐 is a dark, gritty, hardboiled crime story that takes you back to the corrupt small towns of forties and fifties pulp fiction where everyone in town is in the take and there are few allies for any honest man who dares to set foot there. But, the difference here is that the fictional resort town of La Eternidad is a realistic depiction of what has become of much of Mexico, a once-promising third world paradise with so much beauty and so many resources. Drug trade, smuggling, and corruption have taken this slice of paradise and turned it into a deadly killing ground where various cartels and gangs each prove themselves nastier and more barbaric than the other. Areas once populated by families out for the evening are vacant wastelands where no one dares go out at night. The police force is corrupt, mainly because the alternative to being on the take is their family’s lives being forfeit. Country roads are filled with checkpoints where buses are routinely robbed, emptied.

Trevino was that one honest cop, they one good guy, but they ran him out of town, after his fellow officers nearly beat him to death. The rich may live behind their walls, but kidnapping is a lucrative sport and this father wants his daughter back. So Trevino is pulled out of hiding to go to war and investigate and find this poor damsel. And, everyone wants revenge on him. Nowhere’s safe for him.

The writing is clear, gritty, nasty, and the twists and turns this case will take will surprise you. Real good stuff!

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

No flowers okay, I won't send any. I will give my accolades though. Solares punches hard with this one. Sometimes I felt, no more please stop a little, but he continues relentlessly and I continued reading. No escape. But what for me is just a book, for a whole nation it is their everyday reality. Solares paints a disturbing picture of present day Mexico and it's troubles. Even more disturbing because the picture he gives corresponds to that given by the media or the little media time that finally reaches me on the other side of the ocean.

The writing gives the necessary punches with a graceful economy, no overflowing of words. Punch and retreat for protection. I appreciated the three point of views given. I must admit that I did feel disappointed at each changeover though because in each instance I was so into the moment that I felt the loss.

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I love a hard-boiled noir, and this gritty mystery set in northern Mexico makes my usual fare look like raw eggs. The contemporary city of La Eternidad resembles the untamed American west of the late 1800’s. The power struggle among Narcos, smugglers and corrupt politicians has created a town with no rules whatsoever. The streets roll up at dark every night and kidnapping for ransom has become commonplace. Enter Carlos Treviño. A former policeman, Treviño is on the outs with his former police chief, Margarito González, and the many other criminals who he arrested during his time with law enforcement. When a teenage girl is kidnapped, her wealthy father pulls Treviño out of retirement by threatening and bribing him into service. By the halfway point, it appears that Treviño has solved the crime; but this story is just getting started. With long cons, and corruption several layers thick, this plot takes twists and turns that you will never see coming, leaving bodies in it’s wake at every bend. A noir thriller that does not disappoint.

This is a book that makes American crime noir and the grittiest police novels look like child's play. La Eternidad is a city that makes the darkest corners of any big city seem safe. Between the police, the military, the local government, local businessmen, and the cartels, the only people honest about what they do are the cartels. Everyone else is owned or works for someone else. Nothing is what it appears to be. The kidnapping of the daughter of a local business leader brings retired detective Carlos Trevino into the picture. Trevino is pressured into helping find the girl. He left the corruption of the police force and tried to live in peace and is now dragged back into the world he rejected.

Martín Solares paints a picture of violence, brutality, and corruption that is plaguing Mexican cities. Solares' fictional La Etrenidad is near where he was born on the Gulf Coast. A dark book about what is now commonplace. Timely, violent and realistic.