Silver Bullets | The Acid Taste | Name of the Dog
Kiss the Detective | Murder in Sinaloa Park | She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
It is foolish to die of stress when you could calmly kill yourself with a bullet.
Edgar “Lefty” Mendieta is a police officer in his 40s whose wife just left him. He sees a therapist regularly to heal his past traumas that are haunting him. Despite having studied literature in college, he works at the Police Station of the State of Culiacán in Sinaloa (México). He is a smart man, but he doesn’t take care of himself, and he is in bad shape. He has crippling anxiety and has a sarcastic and dark humor which not everyone understands. He is bad at using weapons (and also his fists), but he has a big heart. He likes rock music and whiskey and his go-to outfit are sneakers, jeans and a jacket. He smokes too much and is addicted to anxiety medication, and his work-related modus operandi consists in interrogating his witnesses, writing incomprehensible notes down on his hand and ignoring the majority of the witnesses’ testimonies.
He is always accompanied by Gris Toledo, a former traffic agent who to his surprise gave him a fine (even if he is a police agent), and this attitude made him want to hire her.
In an unbridled Mexico, violent but sensitive, where nobody respects the police, let alone the law, “Lefty” Mendieta plunges into all sorts of peculiar and bizarre investigations.
He consistently proves that he is not adept enough to analyze crime, but he is clever and astute enough to detect subtle clues that delinquents leave behind. He has the help of his contacts within his network and even friends from the other side to solve cases.
Action, adrenaline, narcs, gunshots, personal problems, family conflicts and an ensemble of situations with a dizzying narration and an agile and intelligent language. A vibrant Mexican story that explores a framework of betrayals, deals, and conspiracies of a society in which organized crimes are part of everyday life.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: The legendary “Lefty” Mendieta saga is considered one of the most important references of narco literature. It is comprised of six novels: Silver Bullets, The Acid Taste, Name of the Dog, Kiss the Detective, Murder in Sinaloa Park, and She Came In Through the Bathroom Window. In this saga, which has earned multiple awards and has been translated into many languages, Élmer Mendoza uses the figure of Lefty Mendieta to create a meticulous and detailed depiction of the darkest and most discouraging side of Mexico.
Élmer Mendoza is one of the most important voices in contemporary Mexican literature and is considered the “godfather of Narco-lit”. He’s been a member of the Mexican Academy of Language for over a decade now. Furthermore, he’s won several prestigious awards, including the Tusquets de Novela Award, the José Fuentes Mares National Award for Literature, the Sinaloa National Award for Literature, and he was a finalist for the Dashiell Hammett Award.
What the critics have said:
“The protagonist and his partner are pleasant, nuanced and credible.” Detectives de libro
“A Mexican party with action and words.” Otro lunes
“The saga “Lefty” Mendieta is inspired by Hammett´s Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon. […] But Élmer Mendoza´s novel is, above all, a novel that goes above and beyond.” El País
“Mendoza is one of the best Mexican writers, infinitely realistic and formalist, a miniaturist of narration, sounds and tones. He writes as if he is threading voices, like a professional sewer.” Libération
“A superb work, similar to the invigorating realism of Dashiell Hammett´s early work.” The Irish Examiner
“The patriarch of detective literature in Mexico.” Arturo Pérez-Reverte
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: Serie TV, Miniserie, Film, TV Movie.
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish, English, French, German, Italian and Greek.
