Novelist and Revolutionary Team to Write Crime Novel
When well-known Mexican crime writer Pablo Ignacio Taibo II heard from the guerilla leader "Subcommander Marcos", the mysterious revolutionary who gained fame for his fight for the people of Chiapas, Mexico, about the possibility of co-authoring a book, his first reaction was No. But after thinking about it for ten seconds, he said yes. "It had the enormous attraction of insanity," Taibo admits. His Mexico City detective series featuring Hector Belascoaran Shayne is well known in Europe and Latin America. After some discussion, the new book will alternate chapters: Marcos will write chapters 1,3, and 5, Taibo chapters 2,4, and 6, and both will collaborate on the last chapter 7. The resulting book, Awkward Deaths features two detectives who work a case from different angles, with politics and social commentary thrown in. The leftist Mexican Newspaper La Jornada is serializing the book, and chapters can be read here. Why would a revolutionary want to write a detective story? "I think here is an attempt to use a genre that he has not used before," Hernández said. "The police novel is the best genre for describing social injustice, the abuse of power, the inequality that exists in a society," said Luis Hernández, editorial page editor of La Jornada.