A SWEET SCENT OF DEATH

Guillermo Arriaga

Faber £6.99 pbk Rel: Oct 2003

Reviewed by Les Hurst

From Arriaga, screenwriter of brutal Mexican hit Amores Perros and the forthcoming Sean Penn and Benico Del Torro starrer 21 Grams, comes this timeless little tale of unjust revenge.

The setting is modern day Mexico, but even if the locals drive around in pick-ups or listen to Walkmans, the age-old rules of death and blood feud still apply. In a poor rural community beyond the reach of honest lawmen or even the Church, a teenage girl is discovered naked and dying from a stab wound. Ramon Castanos, 16-years-old, is mistakenly taken to be her boyfriend when he is found trying to comfort her. Swept up in events, Ramon does not have a chance to explain he only loved her from afar, and is cast in the role of avenger as the novel takes its inevitable course.

With the Mexican Rangers content to leave the locals to their own brand of rough justice, not seeing a way to profit from it, a scapegoat is identified and his death arranged. One old man comes close to the truth with a Sherlockian like examination of the murder scene, but even he stays quiet and becomes a part of the conspiracy, knowing his evidence is too little and too late to change the village’s conviction of who might be responsible.

And that’s it. No great twists, no major revelations. Just a steady compelling progression to an extrajudicial killing in 160 pages, hardly more than a novella. Arriaga will make you feel the heat and dust and take you into the secrets and hypocrisies of village like as you await the bloody conclusion. Like rubberneckers at an accident, there is no way to turn from the horror of what is awaiting Ramon and his designated victim.