Adrian McKinty’s FIFTY GRAND will make a few best-of lists by the end of the year. An amazing page-turner packed with energy and ferocious writing, it tells of a young Cuban detective named Mercado who wants to investigate her father’s death in a small but glamorous town in Colorado.
At the opening, Mercado’s brothers have just come back from the States, taking care of their now-deceased father. This is also a father who left the family when Mercado was 13, but he is still blood and she is determined to find out what happened, since her sibling says that the town police only considered it a hit-and-run. She is so driven, she makes it her point to get to that Colorado town anyway she knows how, and that means sneaking over the border as a illegal immigrant by the way of Mexico.
Early on, she is tested with a showdown to some good-old boys who are loaded to bear and figure they see these immigrants as easy pickings. But that is nothing to what she comes face-to-face with in the Colorado town, which is run by a corrupt sheriff who feels as though it’s his kingdom. The bulk of his townspeople are Hollywood types who can get away with anything; he’ll just turn a blind eye, to them, including a never-ending stream of illegal workers and drug running.
Using a false name of Maria, Mercado is forced into a job as a maid as she slowly investigates the death of her dad, only to come across some confusing threads about him — namely, that he was a Cuban immigrant in Miami, but had papers that claimed he was a Mexican national, which makes no sense to her. But as soon as she thinks she makes progress, stumbling blocks — be it the sheriff or other people who don’t like her nosing around — appear.
FIFTY GRAND offers a multilayered look at American life through another eyes. We watch as Mercado deals with being not just a second-class citizen, but more like a fourth, especially as she is manhandled by some of the locals, and the way the local law enforcement treat her like nothing but common trash. It all comes to a head in a bone-chilling showdown on a frozen bed of ice, which will keep readers glued.
If McKinty was only going to take the story to that conclusion, it would have been a fine read. But he has more story to tell after Mercado discovers the truth of the hit-and-run; she still has something quite unexpected waiting for her back home. The writing just bristles with an energy that left me wanting more. This is a novel that promises a thrill ride — at certain points, you’ll want to take a breather, but you’ll keep on reading instead to see how everything comes out. —Bruce Grossman
Related posts:
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense
- Fifty-to-One
- Fifty Degrees Below
- The Fever Kill
- Face of a Killer
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is one of the major noir releases this year that I have a serious interest in. Mckinty is a huge talent and I can’t wait to give this a read
Thanks for the review man, I really appreciate it!
Adrian…
Mercado was her last name was it not and if so what is her first name?