Untamed Shore – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A small town on the coast of Baja California, Desengaño has been home to teenager Viridiana her whole life, the eldest of six children to a mother who has no ambition for herself or them, wishing Viridiana to get back with her ex and agree to marry him, sacrificing any future plans she might have of getting away from a life where the only use for the four languages she speaks is as a guide and translator for disinterested American tourists.
The latest arrival is wealthy Ambrose P Allerton, in the company of his wife Daisy, twenty-five years his junior, and her younger brother Gregory, only ten years older than Viridiana herself, Allerton on retreat to compose his thoughts and ideas into a novel, Viridiana employed as a secretary and liaison, introducing the trio to the local sights and colour when she is not typing or simply listening to Ambrose’s ramblings, he a connection to a world she longs to see and she the sympathetic and patient ear that Daisy lacks.
A tale of deception, blackmail and romance under the Mexican sun set by the sea where the undertow can pull the unwary under, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Untamed Shore sees Viridiana caught in those currents, her desire to escape Desengaño matched by her attraction to Gregory with his movie-star looks and easy charm and made all the easier by her increasing distance from her family who disapprove of her new employment and the hostility of her peers who are jealous of her position.
Set in 1979, Viridiana’s only sources of information are the extensive library of her friend Reynier and what she is told, filtered through her own instincts of who to trust, and she treads carefully between Ambrose and Daisy, their moods as changeable as the tide and their relationship tempestuous, instead allowing herself to be dazzled by Gregory and his promise to take her to Paris, consciously silencing her awareness that this is too good to be true, preferring to believe that she too could be part of that glamorous life.
A fan of old movies which she used to watch with her grandmother, Viridiana however is not in a Hollywood love story but a film noir, present at the house but not witness to a fatal accident which occurs and acting as go-between for the family and the local authorities, complacent and open to bribery, translating faithfully but failing to volunteer information or point out discrepancies in the statements, fearful of jeopardising her position and her ticket to a better life.
The language simple and direct as the telegraphed twists, the Untamed Shore promises wild plunges to deep mystery but sets a situation transparent to any reader familiar with the genre without ever deviating, Viridiana’s metamorphosis from intelligent but naïve teenager who has willingly allowed herself to be manipulated to mastermind who turns the tables on experienced and worldly con-artists insufficiently convincing to distract from a path which never wades more than ankle-deep into the shark-infested waters.
Untamed Shore is available now from Jo Fletcher Books
