'NARCO'S' DRUGS, MAYHEM, AND MORE

Narco by Everardo Torrez, Arte Publico Press, $12.95

It would be a mistake to dismiss "Narco," the debut novel by Everardo
Torrez, as just another drugs-and-death-along-the-border book.

Yes, both figure prominently, but more important, it serves up a
no-holds-barred account of the lives of desperate people trapped in the
nightmare of the multibillion-dollar narcotics trade.

Torrez pulls no punches about the people involved in moving the deadly
cargo from the interior of Chihuahua state to Juarez from where it would be
taken across the border at El Paso. This bunch is as seedy, slimy and
sinister as they come. Death means little to them; money and power are
everything.

But Nando Flores, a small-time operator who earns what living he can by
running cars into Mexico and occasionally people to the border, bypassing
authorities in both directions, can't afford to say no when offered "the
ultimate score" - $100,000 for a delivery to the United States. He gets
$5,000 for delivering a new Jaguar to a lawyer near Chihuahua City, and he
is to meet a woman in three days in nearby El Pajarin to learn about the
bigger prize.

Even his contact for the job and the woman who offered it is wary:
"Nobody's dumb enough to offer that kind of money for a routine transport.
The fact that she did and that she insisted on you suggests the girl is
into something that a hundred grand isn't going to cover. Either that or
it's a set up for a bust."

It isn't a set up for a bust, and the woman is serious about paying him
$100,000 for the delivery. Xiomara, whom he meets in a sleazy bar, says she
is to be his cargo, and for that princely sum, Nando has to get her to El
Paso where the money is waiting in a bank. The only catch is that at least
two rival drug cartels want Xiomara dead because of what she knows about
their operations and is willing to tell to officials in exchange for
becoming a U.S. citizen. With a challenge like that, how could Nando refuse?

"Narco" is the brutal, compelling tale of their flight through the state of
Chihuahua.

The book ends in a surprising scene set in the squalor and stench of a
massive garbage dump on the outskirts of Juarez.

Torrez, a native of Michoacan, Mexico, was reared on a sugar beet farm in
Idaho. He holds degrees from the University of Southern California and
Boise State University. He, his wife and their two children live in Boise,
where he is working on a new book.