Send More Idiots: A Novel

by Tony Perez-Giese

Overview

Juarez, Mexico, is murder city, so it’s not surprising when an American real estate broker vanishes there without a trace. The only person who shows any interest in his disappearance is his brother, Jon. Oddly, Jon seems more intent on trying to go missing himself than he is in actually figuring out what happened to his sibling. Within a matter of days, Jon is sucked into the violent and darkly humorous web of cartel warlords and free-trade profiteers in which his brother was tangled up. As he dodges threats in El Paso and across the river in Juarez, Jon is aided by an alcoholic Iraq War veteran, a disgraced narcotics detective and a local tejana — all of whom have scores of their own to settle with the narcotraficantes. Jon finds himself strangely drawn by the danger and flux of the borderland, and he soon realizes that smack in the middle of a raging drug war might be the only place he’s ever felt truly alive...but the longer he stays, the more likely he is to be added to the rapidly mounting body count. Fast-paced, frightening, and at times hilarious, Send More Idiots is ripped straight from today’s headlines about one of the most bizarre frontiers in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480813502
Publisher:	Archway Publishing
Publication date:	12/30/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	324
Sales rank:	816,738
File size:	433 KB

Editorial Reviews

2015-02-23
In Perez-Giese's (Pac Heights, 2013) gritty mystery, a man upends his life to search for his estranged younger sibling, who's gone missing in Juarez, Mexico.This densely populated, darkly comic tale starts off with a wallop: "The Mexican punched me so hard that I said my mother's name, which is interesting, because I don't like my mother." This isn't just an easy gag, as family dynamics are at the heart of this south-of-the-border adventure, which has atmosphere to burn. Jon Lennox, an unhappily married Colorado lawyer, ventures to El Paso after his brother, Chris, a real estate agent—and, in Jon's estimation, a total screw-up—is apparently kidnapped. But several things about the case don't add up. If Chris was abducted, why is there no ransom demand? And if Chris, as one private investigator theorizes, "might have been involved in some things not pertaining to real estate," then why hasn't his body been found? As Jon investigates, he befriends Iraan, a down-on-his-luck detective who tells him that he "doesn't fit the profile of the grieved relative." He also meets Jimmy, an Iraqi war veteran; and Sway, a local hustler. Chris, however, serves as the story's narrator, and the novel might have been better served if Jon picked up the narrative once Chris disappears early on. That said, Perez-Giese evocatively immerses readers in the ethical morass and moral vacuum of the border drug wars, using local authorities to orient readers on who the players are, how they operate, and the stakes involved. He also has a good eye, and nose, for setting a scene: "The room smelled of microwave popcorn and disinfectant, and the phones rang without being answered," he writes of one police station waiting room. The pieces of the puzzle eventually fit together—some more seamlessly than others. Meanwhile, tense confrontations and odd character quirks (such as a drug lord's predilection for the original Star Trek) keep the momentum going.Entertaining, escapist fare; to paraphrase one of Perez-Giese's characters, it's a great idea with good execution.

Kirkus Reviews