Book Review - Viper by John Desjarlais - Review by Carl Brookins

Thank you, Carl, for another review to share with my readers. John Desjarlais was a guest here at It's Not All Gravy, talking about how he developed this Latina heroine. Click HERE to read that blog post if you would like to know how he blended Aztec history with modern Spanish culture.

Viper
John Desjarlais
978-1933184-80-7
2011 trade paper release
Sophia Institute Press
238 pages.



Set in rural Illinois, the novel follows disgraced DEA agent Selena De La Cruz as she tries to re-order her life into some semblance of normality after a drug raid gone bad results in a tragic aftermath. Leaving that life turns out to be more than just difficult. It is impossible. And so Selena leaves her insurance company and re-enters the dangerous world of undercover drug enforcement among a Latino population that is turbulent, ever-changing and marked with friends who become enemies and family members short on  understanding.

The author cleverly establishes Selena as an independent capable woman beset on all sides by the chauvinism of her bosses and the cultural disapproval of her family. Good Latina women do not carry guns and arrest drug dealers. There is an invasive Latin Catholic presence throughout the book. The basic theme of the story is a list of names entered into a church’s Book of the Dead, requesting prayers for their souls.  The problem is that the people represented are still alive as the book opens. But one by one they are murdered. Since Selena’s name is last on the list, she has more than usual reason to be concerned. Her interaction with law enforcement and Church officials becomes more and more intense as the list is shortened, one by one.

The novel is smoothly written, logical and mostly gripping.  There are several sections of Aztec and other religious history and legends used by the author to explain some of the ritual Selena encounters which, while interesting in themselves, have a tendency to slow the narrative. Nevertheless, Viper is a worthwhile read, blending religious mystery with brutal modern crime.


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Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com Books by Carl Brookins: Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky

Guest Post from John Desjarlais

Please help me welcome John Desjarlais as she shares his experience with getting to know and understand a female character who is Latina. Sometimes it's hard enough for a man to understand any woman, but what a challenge it must have been to understand a woman of another culture.

When I first began to gather material for Viper, I knew that Selena De La Cruz, the strong-willed Latina insurance agent who was a minor character in Bleeder would be the protagonist. Not only was she a forceful character on her own, but her Mexican-American identity was important to the story, based on a premise regarding the All Souls Day ‘Book of the Dead’ that Catholic churches have and its proximity to the Mexican holiday, ‘The Day of the Dead.’

Lacking experience as a Latina (being an Anglo man) I immersed myself in the experiences of Latin women vicariously in many ways. There are many new books in circulation by Latinas about managing Old-World expectations placed upon women while trying to fit into New-World American society. I subscribed to Latina magazine for fashion, beauty, relationship and lifestyle issues. I browsed Latinas’ blogs and web sites to see what everyone talked about, especially with regard to living with a bi-cultural identity. Just like the Dad says in the movie Selena, “We've gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans both at the same time. It's exhausting!" 

This tension is felt early in a Latina’s life, as in this vignette from Selena’s childhood in Chicago:

When Selena wheeled the Charger onto 18th Street in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, the throaty rumble of the big engine turned the heads of young men in tilted White Sox caps. In the air, Norteño bands playing plaintive corridos on button accordions competed with the thump-thump of quebradita, a blend of North Mexican banda and Aztec punk rockers singing in Spanglish. Like Julia Alvarez once said in a poem, Selena felt her Spanish blood beating.

She crossed herself and kissed her thumb and forefinger held together when she passed Saint Adalbert’s Elementary in the shadow of the church’s skyline-dominating steeple. In the sixth grade, Sister Mary Beatrice -- who every kid called Sister Mary BattleAxe -- caught Selena speaking Spanish in the back row. She was asking Gloria García for an eraser. Sister pulled Selena by the ear into the corner.
 
“You’re in America now,” the Polish nun had reprimanded, her milky finger in Selena’s mocha face. “We speak English here. If you want to be an American, speak American. If you want to speak Spanish, then go back to Mexico.”
 
Selena asked if there was a difference between speaking English and speaking American.
 
Sister Beatrice kept her after school for talking back.
 
“Ay, you don’t talk back,” her mother chided her when she got home. Mamí’s high Zapotec cheekbones colored like the red hot lava of Mount Popocatépetl and the obsidian-black bun on top of her head, Selena could have sworn, was spinning.
 
“Muchachitas bien criadas, girls brought up well, don’t mouth off,” her mother said, wringing the dishtowel. “Do you want to called habladora? A big mouth that talks too much? Is that what you want?”
 
“Mamí, all I did was ask a question.”
 
“En boca cerrada no entran moscas,” her mother said, tapping her lips with a finger. Flies cannot enter a closed mouth. “You must be quiet, and keep your eyes low in respeto, like La Virgen de Guadalupe.”

Living in two cultures at once poses many everyday challenges, as in this brief example where the teen-aged Selena brings home an Anglo date to meet the familia:

In high school she brought home an Anglo boy, Jerry, to meet the family. She feared Papá would interrogate him like a cop drilling a suspect and the family, one by one, would corner him with stories of Mexico even if they couldn’t speak English and Mamí would serve tripe soup with chiles colorados to test his mettle – but she brought home the Anglo boy anyway. A crowd of Mamí, Papá, her three brothers, all her cousins, uncles and aunts, including Comadre María with all the curious, chattering neighbors greeted him. Jerry shook hands with Papá and her three brothers and smiled at everyone else – not knowing he was expected to meet everyone personally with a handshake and a warm verbal greeting. She should have told him. Later, Mamí called him muy frío, very cold, mal educado, ill mannered. Is this how we raised you – to find a gringo for a boyfriend who is so bent on dishonoring us, who has no respeto for our familia?
 
"He doesn’t know our ways," Selena cried. "He is Americano."

"And what are you?" Mamí asked.

And Selena realized fully for the first time she was in two worlds at once.

A Latina translator who helped me with the Spanish and reviewed the work-in-progress said at one point, “I am SO into Selena!” The character’s experiences were matching her own.

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I thank John for contributing today. If you want to know more about him or about some of his other books, visit his website   His other books are :  Relics and The  Throne ofTara

Guest Blogger Tomorrow

There will be no book review today, but I will say I am reading Double Cross by James Patterson and enjoying it. I recently started reading his books again after reading I, Alex a year or so ago, and I admire his ability to keep a reader engaged. It's true that Alex Cross is a bit over the top sometimes, but so is James Bond. They are fictional super-heroes so they have to be bigger than life.

Whoops, this is almost a review isn't it.

What I intended to do this morning was introduce you to John Desjarlais, a fellow mystery author. Granted he is not as well-known as James Patterson, but he weaves a good tale. John is the author of Bleeder and Viper, both books of mystery that blend  Aztec myth and Mexican Catholicism. He will share a bit about how he studied to get the characterization of the Latina protagonist in Viper just right.
         
A former producer with Wisconsin Public Radio, Desjarlais teaches journalism and English at Kishwaukee College in Malta, Ill. A member of Mystery Writers of America, Desjarlais is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.


About the Book:

            On All Souls Day, Selena De La Cruz’s name is entered in her parish church's “Book of the Deceased.” The problem is, she's not dead. And someone thinks she should be.

            John Desjarlais’ latest mystery, Viper, the sequel to 2009’s Bleeder, brings back fiery Latina insurance agent Selena De La Cruz. Working against time, prejudice, and her own Latino community’s suspicions, she reluctantly re-joins her old DEA colleagues to hunt a deadly drug dealer who is out of jail and systematically killing everyone who ever crossed him. Can they stop him before he reaches her name on the gruesome hit list?

            As in  the first book, Desjarlais sets the tale in the colorful small-town settings of “Sinnissippi County” of northern Illinois, this time expanding to Chicago to explore issues of immigration and bi-cultural identity against a rich backdrop of Aztec mythology and Mexican Catholicism.

            His historical novels and mysteries are available at Amazon.com.

                   For more information, visit www.johndesjarlais.com