Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

🎥A historical noir with anti -hero !!

🎥Maite, a legal secretary becomes involved in a political web while trying to earn money, cat sitting for her neighbour. She finally finds herself with a little life that she doesn't want to give up, in trying to find Leonara, the missing neighbor.

🎥On orders from his boss, Elvis is also looking for Leonara. She has to be found so that photos implicating political crime does not come out. Observing Maite, gets him obsessed with her over time.

🎥When they are close to finding Leonara, lives will be threatened and truths about close ones gets revealed.

🎥The book is written with complicated characters that makes every twist in the book unexpected. With multiple narrators gives a different perspective on the same situation makes this action packed book so much more interesting. This is the first book of the author for me and I so recommend it 🤗

🎥Thank you @netgalley @quercusbooks for my copy ❣️

This is my first Silvia Moreno-Garcia novel and it certainly won't be my last.
It was a slow burn book but straight away I was captured by the characters. It is told from 2 person perspective and I adored this about it. Elvis was my favourite character.
It reminded me of the film True Romance with several people all searching for the missing Lorena and her camera roll. The moral greyness of everyone in the book kept it fun and interesting and that epilogue was EVERYTHING. I loved it. Honestly, I can see this book becoming a film.
The history of 70s Mexico and the music of that era made it so easily to immerse yourself in the book. The characters and environment were described so well that it was impossible not to visualise it while reading.
As someone who wasn't taught Mexican history in school I found the true facts in the book fascinating.
I've rounded the rating up to 5 stars since I couldn't decide whether to rate it 4.5 or 4.75.
Fantastic book. I recommend any thriller or mystery readers to try this noir if you haven't read one before just for a change of pace.

“My novel is noir, pulp fiction, but it’s based on a real horror story.”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has done it again! Each one of the author’s books have been beautifully written and so different from the last that I genuinely can’t wait to see when she announces a new book release. I fell in love with her writing style when I read Mexican Gothic and recently read The Beautiful Ones which is just as beautifully written with a story that envelops you!

Velvet Was the Night is going to be a huge hit upon its release (which is today!) and tells the story of a troubled time in Mexico’s history. Set in the 1970s, Silvia captures the political and social unrest in the country at a time when student protestors are slaughtered by the right-wing groups trying to stem the rise of communism. The story focuses on two seemingly polar-opposite characters; Maite, a 30-something secretary in a legal firm who is a fantasist, escaping from her mediocre life through her romance comics and American music. Elvis, a member of the Hawks gang, is no stranger to violence and will do anything to get approval from the Hawks leader, El Mago. When Maite’s young neighbour, the beautiful student Leonora, goes missing, Maite is thrown into a world of espionage, violence and danger.

Velvet Was the Night is not a fast-paced thriller but Silvia uses the slower pace to absolutely suck you into the world she creates in her book. You can literally visualise the city, the vibrancy of life in the 1970s; the sights, smells and tastes of Mexico are transmitted from the pages of this book. One of my favourite things about Silvia’s books is this immersive quality where you feel that you are standing with the characters and get to experience what they are going through first hand.

The main characters are beautifully developed throughout the story and my heart really goes out to both Maite and Elvis for their respective life stories and how, although so different, they are both lost souls trying to escape their situations through music.

I love the inclusion of music in this story. It is an integral component and sets the tone and mood for all of the key moments with the main characters. You can just see Maite sitting in her atelier listening to the sultry tones of Etta James and the crooning of Elvis and Bobby Darrin. The author has also included a playlist at the end of her book which is the perfect accompaniment to reading this story.

Add Velvet Was the Night to your reading list- it will not disappoint! Romance, espionage, action and suspense, it’s got a little bit of everything you need (and don’t forget the music!).

Thank you to Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A slow burn but intricately entangled noir tale, where you're never quite sure who the bad guys are, and who are the good guys, or is there any such distinction? Darkness and brutality are balanced with hope and possibility, and enough twists and entanglements to keep you reading to find out what will happen.

I really enjoyed the vibe of this novel. At the beginning of the novel the main characters, Maite and Elvis both lead mundane lives whilst looking for adventure and trying to be cool. The adventure upends both of their lives, and while they aren't cooler at the end of the book they have a better understand of what matters to them. As the author herself has said, the novel is a noir and the stakes are relatively small, but I enjoyed the historical context, as well as following Maite and Elvis on their journey.

4 enjoyable stars ****

I am not too sure if I’ve ever read a “noir” pulp fiction book before, but this was highly enjoyable!

In this we follow Maite; a legal secretary in Mexico, living by herself in her lonely apartment, keeping her head down and worrying about her mother’s expectations and money issues. However, she also loves to lie, steal things from others (if she can get away with it) as wishes her life is like those of the Secret Romance novels she adores.

Elvis is part of the Hawks- a ‘gang’ employed by the Mexican government, funded by the CIA, to infiltrate, abuse, even kill, and stop any form of protests and uprisings, especially student uprisings.

When Maite is tasked to look after a neighbours cat, and the neighbour never makes it home, she is tugged along into this war of students vs. Government and into actions which she never wanted a part of.

I enjoyed seeing how these events played out across the page through the authors writing and I was constantly page turning. I also really enjoyed Elvis and Maite’s characters as they’re both anti-heroes but it was hard not to like them. I enjoyed Maite especially! And the imagination and thrill she gets from her comics.

While this book is historical fiction, it was inspired by real events that the author describes in the “Afterword” and I learned a lot from this! I had no clue that the Hawks were real and were hired by the government to stop protests- and the massive amount of killings that went unreported to stop these uprisings.
I will have to delve into this topic a lot more.

This was the first Silvia Moreno-Garcia book I read, and I got the hype surrounding her masterful writing. The storytelling was wonderful - her words really brought me in; I felt like I was there with Maite and Elvis in the story.

I really enjoyed all the characters, not just Maite and Elvis - each character really added something to the story. I loved the background setting, the inclusion of rich political and cultural themes, the mystery element of Leonora's disappearance, and the alternating point of views between Maite and Elvis. For two characters that had a very minimal interaction, I still felt the 'connection' between them because of who they 'were' (or who they were designed to be) - this, to me, showed Moreno-Garcia's strong writing skill.

Another thing that impressed me about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing was that she wrote her books in different genres altogether. ​This time, the genre of choice was historical noir. Not the jazzy, detective-smoking-cigar kind, but the lively simmering kind set in Mexico City in the 70s. I love learning the different types of genres along with the different styles of writing for each, so I will be checking more of her books!

Maite is a lonely secretary reading secret romance comics and dreaming of another more thrilling life that she could be leading. Around her 1970's Mexico is erupting with violent clashes between protesters and police and the city is reaching boiling point. When Maite's neighbour asks her to feed her cat whilst she goes away for the weekend little does she know that she will be drawn into the violence that surrounds her.

This was part thriller part noir and I loved it. The true life elements of the book taking place in the time of Mexico's dirty war was engrossing and illuminating as this isn't something that I'm familiar with. The characters were all flawed and deeply human and I desperately wanted a happy ending for Maite as she was written so beautifully. I will definitely be reading more by Silvia as this was a 5 star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of Moreno-Garcia’s writing – she is a mighty talent who makes a point of hopping across a number of genres to produce something different every time. Even more impressively, she manages to nail each genre every time, too. But I’ll confess that this time around, it was something of a battle to get through the first half of this book. It’s a noir thriller, set in a terrible time when people were being persecuted and beaten by thugs because of their political opinions. So inevitably, the mood is gritty and the main characters are trapped in circumstances beyond their control. As I’m also struggling with my own issues right now, I found it a difficult read – especially as I really cared about Maite.

Moreno-Garcia’s superpower is the way she manages to make me care about protagonists who are deeply flawed. Poor, downtrodden Maite is far too worried about what everyone else thinks. Lonely and depressed, she is also oblivious to what is going on around her. Elvis has got mixed up with a terrible organisation, having been mesmerised by a monster, and is capable of terrible acts of violence. Both of them aspire to a more glamorous life, as depicted in the films – the kind of life that missing Leonora seems to be leading. Though, despite her insecurities and ignorance of the sheer horror of what is going on around her, what stopped me from dismissing Maite as a complete loser, is the core of kindness that runs through her. And her refusal to give up trying to do the right thing.

After I got halfway through the book, the gathering pace and my fondness for Maite kept the pages turning. Moreno-Garcia’s evident talent shines through in her handling of the increasing tension, while the finale brought together all the strands of the story into a fabulous ending. Whatever you do, read the Afterword which explains the historical context of the events depicted in the book. Once more, this is a triumphant success by an outstanding author and I just wish my own circumstances had left me in a better place to be able to fully appreciate it. While I don’t normally reread books, this is one that I intend to visit again, once I’ve finally recovered from Long Covid. The ebook arc copy of Velvet Was the Night was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
9/10

Is there anything that Silvia Moreno-Garcia <i>can't</i> write? This may well not have been one of my favourite works from her, but it's still a good read! And after two different flavours in Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow, she now flexes her muscles by taking us back to Mexico in the 1970s, to weave a story of betrayal, politics and love, set against the backdrop of very real student suppression by the Mexican government.

Velvet Was the Night follows the story of Maite, a thirty year old secretary whose life seems to revolve around her weekly Secret Romance comics and making up wild stories about her infinitely more interesting imagined life, because as it stands nothing is going her way: her car has broken down, she lives alone in a grimy flat and her only pride is her collection of vinyl records; the other main character is Elvis, who styles himself after The King, but who leads a much more violent life, as part of the Hawks, a secret group with government backing to suppress any communist tendencies amongst students in Mexico. Beneath his tough exterior, Elvis is a bit of a sensitive soul. So when his path and Maite's cross in the search for a missing woman, they realise that their very lives could be in danger.

I should reiterate what Moreno-Garcia herself says: this isn't a thriller, really, it's a noir. Its stakes are much smaller, its action is very contained and it harkens back to a tradition of Raymond Chandler, with femmes fatales, missing people and spies everywhere. And there were genuine times when I could really lose myself in the book, particularly in the latter half when things really kick off. But I can't say that I loved it from the beginning and even by the end I wasn't exactly falling over myself to gush about the book. I'm usually very hot and cold with thrillers and I can't say that I have a ton of experience with noir as a genre, so it's entirely possible that part of my reticence came from that. The other reason is that I just couldn't really gel with Maite.

For most of the book, she is an absolute drag. When she's not thinking about how old she is (and look, I get it, this is the 1970s, being thirty and unmarried probably did feel like the end of the world), or dreaming about her comic books, she's constantly bringing herself down, comparing herself to Leonora or just generally being very whiny. It's annoying, because I get the feeling that underneath this there is a much more interesting character: she enjoys music, she's resourceful, she's actually a very caring person. But all of it just adds so much drudgery that I found her chapters to be extremely annoying to get through. Elvis, on the other hand, does come across as much more complex, because he actually hates violence but he finds himself in this situation in which he can't quite do anything but violent actions, even as he finds Maite herself to be interesting enough to obsess over.

I saw a few reviewers complain that the historical context makes it hard to care about the characters but if anything I would have loved a lot more historical context! But then again I guess I really love historical fiction, so it makes sense that I would want more. I also feel that I should / could have listened to the official playlist and maybe it would have really set the mood for me, who knows... But even though I said I only "liked" this book, I would still recommend it. I really don't think Moreno-Garcia is physically capable of writing a bad book!

I love to read as books transport me to places and worlds that I have never been and can never go. In most cases these are fantasy or science fiction worlds, but there are a lot of places in our own history that seem just as exciting and different. 1970s Mexico is nothing like the country I grew up in as various internal political factions fought among one another while the likes of the CIA and KGB offered a helping hand. This is a time of kidnapping, unlawful arrest and even state sanctioned murder. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Velvet was the Night proves a crime thriller set 50 years ago can be just as compelling as a space opera set thousands of years in the future.

It is the early 1970s and Maite lives in Mexico City working as a secretary at a law firm. Her life is a lonely one, living alone with her records and romantic comics to entertain her. Her live feels drab and meaningless, so any adventure could add a spark. The simple act of looking after her neighbour’s cat should not have been that adventure, but when the neighbour disappears, Maite suddenly finds herself on the periphery of shady politics. Her best move would be to take a step back, but could getting closer to danger be like one of her comics?

Moreno-Garcia is a writer I have come across recently and has fast become one of my favourites. The author does not stick to one genre having written urban fantasy, gothic, and magical romance. Velvet has no fantastical elements and instead is a crime thriller set in an intriguing place and time. What links all Moreno-Garcia's books is the exceptional character and world building. There are few authors who can paint a character as well, in only a few sentences.

Velvet is told from the perspective of Maite, but also Elvis. Elvis is the code name given to a young man who is a member of the Hawks, a state sanctioned group of thugs whose job is to spy and beat up agitators. Elvis’ young looks makes him perfect to infiltrate the student groups interested in Marxism. Maite feels old before her time and does not think kindly about others. Elvis is a product of his environment, a survivor who has done unpleasant things to get on in life. Both Maite and Elvis are flawed and fully formed characters, they can be quite unlikable at times, but you always want to see where their path takes them.

The first half of the book slowly builds up the tension as Maite is dragged into events and Elvis observes from afar. We learn that they both have a touch of the fantasist about them. Both feel unhappy in the role they are in and reflect on their pasts and what went wrong. Seeing the story from two perspectives that are very different, but also have elements in common, makes you feel that the characters are kindred spirits, although they have never met.

This is a character piece, but you also get a glimpse into a dark time in History of murky politics and danger. The reader feels transformed to the early 70s and Moreno-Garcia does a fantastic job of using music to evoke a sense of history. Famous hits of the era that the West know well, but also the Mexican cover versions and local hits that were popular in Mexico City.

Within this rich world and characters is a tense thriller that builds as the book reaches its climax. There are touches of John Le Carre espionage, but more grounded in the streets of Mexico City. The story culminates in a very satisfactory manner that will please readers who have invested in the characters, but also those that like action. Velvet is a novel that suggests that Moreno-Garcia is an author who can put their pen to any genre. Next up vampires in Certain Dark Things, something that I am already looking forward to.

My first book by Silvia Moreno Garcia and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very well written and the book moves at a good pace. Book is told through two POVs, Maite and Elvis who are connected by a missing woman called Leonora which both need to find. This is set in the 70’s Mexico during the politically charged dirty war which I felt the writer did a good job of describing to readers as I had no idea about it. Huge thumbs up on the cover, it definitely caught my eye. Highly recommend for a good gripping thriller.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another gem from Silvia Moreno Garcia. And again, quite different from her other books. The only thing that is the same is her amazig writing and world building. The characters really come to life. And their not always as likeable or make great decisions, but that made me engage even more with the story. This was not my fave by her, but still really enjoyed it.

It's only my second time reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia books but I'm already in love with her writing!
My first book was Mexican Gothic and although it was very different from Velvet Was the Night I loved them both equally. I first heard of this book from the synopsis and knew I just had to read it.
This book is more historical fiction than Mexican Gothic so for me it sometimes got a little hard to read with all the historical references of Mexico in the 1970s.
The plot and story was really intriguing and I couldn't put it down. I loved both the main characters so much, all their development was perfect and that last chapter and epilogue had me begging for more interactions between Maite and Elvis.
Also I absolutely loved how the book finished with an open ending.
I can't literally wait to read all her other books.

Once again Silvia Moreno-Garcia gave us a wonderful book, a noir, which just keeps you hooked from the first page to the very last.
I can’t wait to read all of her new books that are coming out.

A wonderfully atmospheric noir- not my usual reading at all but I enjoyed every moment. I especially loved how much it references romance comics and Merxican cover music of the period, something I knew very little about but felt like I understood through Maite and Elvis' eyes (and ears).

Highly reccomended.

I’ve enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s other books, so I clicked for this one on Netgalley more or less on auto-pilot, and because the idea of reading historical fiction set in a period/place I don’t know much about sounded interesting. It’s set in Mexico in the 1970s, and follows two main characters: Maite, a lover of romance comics who gets accidentally pulled into intrigue as a result of minding her neighbour’s cat, and Elvis, a lover of rock-n-roll and part of a gang dedicated to crushing student dissent against the government.

Neither of the characters is likeable for me, which is where things fall down. This is a really personal thing, but it’s always an issue for me — I can enjoy a story without characters I love, but it’s usually got to be something more in my usual wheelhouse. The characters are interesting, in that they’re well-written. Particularly in the case of Maite, who I could imagine very well. But… without quite being able to hang my hat on either of them, at all, because they’re both pretty unpleasant as people… I just checked out.

If you’re really interested in the period and/or in historical fiction and noir-feel fiction, this will probably be more your thing than it was mine (where SF/F is still my main genre). I did find the historical context fascinating — I kept looking things up to get a bit more context. I might give it another try in future, but for now, it didn’t really work for me.

As a reminder about my ratings in this case, since it’s so much a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”: take this with a grain of salt; as always with my ratings, it’s based on my personal taste and how much I liked it. And sometimes not-so-keen reviews can still point the way for other readers who think “but that sounds like it’s right up my street”!

Velvet was the Night is a gritty noir from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Now, this is an entirely different offering from the author of Mexican Gothic and I have to say I am immensely impressed by her range. As noir, it hasn’t got the same pace as a twisty thriller, but that isn’t its intention either. Instead, what we are given is a smoky, atmospheric mystery that captures the sweaty heat of a city in turmoil. There are eyes and ears everywhere which, in turn, makes for lonely hearts. Personally, while Velvet was the Night is not as original as Mexican Gothic, I felt more invested in this story than MG. I like the time period and the historical accurateness are more in tune with my interests (from what I understand while it is fiction, it is set in real political events in modern Mexican history).

Velvet was the Night isn’t a literary game changer, but it’s definitely brooding, entertaining and has a perfect balance between plot and character development. I wouldn’t mind spending some more time with Maite and Elvis and can easily envision (and hope) a sequel of some sort. In the meantime, I’ve purchased The Beautiful Ones which I look forward to reading when Autumn sets in.

(3.5 stars)

Historical noir is not something I normally pick up. I tend to be very hesitant in reading. historical fiction in general. But I love the author and her writing so I tried this and I have no regrets.

The story was so intriguing. I did not swallow it but the last 3rd made it difficult to put down.

Maite was the first character and honestly, I didn't like her very much but I loved her storyline. She is stuck in her life, in her job, in her love life. She doesn't get treated very nice by her family but she constantly lies and steels so I didn't like her. She was an unlikable MC but not unlikeable enough for me to dislike the story. I prefered her narrative to Elvis I think.

Elvis was one for the bad boys but with some more refined taste. I liked him as a person more because he wasn't meant to be good but had this good trait. While Maite is supposed to be good but has the bad trait lol.

Well written as expected. The slow burn for these two narratives to meet was great and even the open ending didn't feel so open and I loved that.

It was a surprisingly enjoyable historical fiction, a genre I normally don't like. Maybe the noir part was what made it?

Noir is very much about living in the grey areas. Characters who are not people you’d want to be in a room with doing terrible things and yet we find ourselves compelled to watch or read their exploits. We may never do what these people do but just perhaps we envy their moral flexibility as much as we shake our heads in disapproval and don’t avert our eyes when things go wrong. In Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s deliciously entertaining Velvet Was the Night we find ourselves watching two misfit characters slowly around a central political mystery in 1970’s Mexico City.

Maite is a young woman very conscious she is turning thirty and yet unmarried and without anything in her life to look forward to beyond her next Romance Comic Novel and finding new music to listen to. Most of her life is boring stuck as a legal secretary but a secret she doesn’t share is that in her apartment block she offers to take care of pets and likes to steal a little item from each one. Elvis ( not that one!) is a Hawk for the Mexican Government; an undercover operative/heavy/thug hired for his ability to fight and now being used to spy on left wing demonstrations and when required throw punches steal cameras and find out who is trying to betray the government. He also wants to improve his vocabulary, adores Presley and loves finding new music records to listen to.

Maite is asked to mind the cat of a glamourous young woman named Leonora for a weekend and then several more days pass without her return. People start hanging around her apartment and Leonora asks Maite to take things for a secretive meeting that she never turns up for. Maite is hoping to get paid to finally fix her car so starts investigating and finds herself in the world of left-wing artists and students looking for revolution. Elvis and several of the Hawks after a demonstration that went very wrong are sent by their mysterious boss to find a young woman who may have key evidence…a woman named Leonora.

This is a really impressively constructed novel. The central mystery of Leonora and what she has found and who she has joined sides with is the black hole that captures Elvis and Maite and brings them ever faster towards meeting. Moreno-Garcia captures a Mexico on edge with a government of secret police, spies and even KGB/CIA operatives lurking in the background. The music of the US and UK such as the Beatles or Presley is still subversive in a world where singing cafes with played, music are getting banned and women are expected to quickly get married and have children. The cultures are clashing, and the story feels with art student revolutionaries and government heavies spying on each other all ready to finally erupt into violence. A taster of which is the depiction of the Corpus Christie Massacre or El Halconazo where we see chaos and bloodshed as the government attacks demonstrators – this world feels unsafe from the start and means we don’t feel that any character is safe in this uncaring world.

In a typical political thriller then Maite would be the glamourous heroine chasing ideals and Elvis the true believer villain fighting for the State and the delight of the novel is neither character fits this pigeonhole. They’re more swept up in events rather than trying to control them. Maite is less interested in politics than paying her bills and indeed purposely avoids the newspaper headlines. For her the interesting element to this mystery is the chance to step inside an adventure that could fit the plot of her beloved Comic Romances. On the one hand we feel sympathetic with someone who everyone tells her to conform and settle down when all she wants is adventure and passion, yet we also note her enjoyment of theft and making up stories about her life that suggest she is getting involved for all the wrong reasons.

In contrast Elvis is someone who obeys orders; doesn’t find beating up students and revolutionaries a problem and yet we get to see he saw this job as a way to escape a life of crime and poverty on the streets. His hero worship of his the known as El Mago shows an insecure young man who is a bit of dreamer wanting to just listen to music and live the life of a gentleman. As he investigates, he starts to see that not everything he was told is true and while his scenes are often violent and bloody, we get to really hope he comes out of this in one piece. Moreno-Garcia crafts two really stand-out characters who mirror each other in unexpected ways that we hope when they finally meet it is not going to be a devastating encounter. It’s a beautiful bit of character and plotting that we see their two storythreads collide and don’t know what will happen until the last moment.

Regular readers of the blog know I’m a huge fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and their work in any genre is always at the top of their game. In this case we get a brilliantly plotted tale with two fascinating characters we can’t ignore and want to see how they get out of this story. On top of this readers will get to see a piece of fairly recent history that not many in the UK will have heard of before. A perfect read for thriller fans.