The ‘damn sleaze and the cheapness of it all’
The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Toronto: Del Rey, 2026
$39.99 / 9780593874356
Reviewed by Sophia Wasylinko
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There wasn’t supposed to be any trouble.
He’s a con man trying to make a living. She’s a spinster running a guesthouse with her niece. No one in the sleepy town of Puerco Ahogado, Veracruz could have anticipated the scandal that would follow.
Vancouver resident Silvia Moreno-Garcia returns to the noir genre with her The Intrigue, following three characters who become entangled in a web of deception: Ulises Linares (not his real name); Inés Inclán; and Perla Hildegarda Inclán Arnao.
Both Untamed Shore (2020) and Velvet Was the Night (2021), Moreno-Garcia’s previous noir novels, were set in the 1970s. The Intrigue, on the other hand, unfolds through two timelines: the main one in 1943 and Perla’s backstory set in the 1910s and ‘20s.
Besides the main story’s twists and turns, what I enjoyed most about this book—one of my most anticipated reads of 2026—was its commentary on the historical expectations of Mexican women. Older daughters were to marry well, while their younger sisters cared for their aging parents. All ladies were expected to be modest and refrain from shameful behaviour.
Should an unmarried woman be found in a compromising position, her and her relatives’ reputations would be ruined. Or, as Perla’s father puts it, a “woman who disgraces her family’s name is like a decomposed piece of meat, sprouting maggots, infecting everything she touches.”
Things don’t go as planned for Perla, since she’s still unmarried by the start of The Intrigue. While she resented being under her father’s thumb, she has absorbed his values, trying unsuccessfully to instil them in her niece Inés: “She liked the grandeur and the sense of permanence that he had gravitated toward, that feeling that this place would withstand the rigors of time rather than surrender to the whims of the new.”
Tied to this theme, The Intrigue also shows the battle between the embrace of modernity and nostalgia for a bygone era. Perla laments the disrespect of youth towards their elders, while her tenants debate the impacts of the Mexican Revolution. And whether it’s the influx of American tourists or air raid drills in the big cities, the spectre of World War II is never far away.
Of the Moreno-Garcia (The Bewitching) novels I’ve read, this book’s leads are the most morally grey. Ulises meets women through lonely hearts ads and steals their savings. Although not as successful as his father, he’s able to charm the toughest customers, including Perla—“…[Even] though she had the faint air of a Mother Superior at a convent, when he smiled that devilish smile of his, he saw in her eyes that her interest was piqued.”
Unapproachable at the best of times, Perla is especially tight-fisted with Inés. She despises the girl’s rebellious attitude and keeps a tight leash on her—“She was still her niece. Hers to command and to keep, the same way a wild animal, a jaguar or a wolf, might be kept in a menagerie.”
With the lack of love and nourishment, Inés hates her aunt with a vengeance. She demands in on Ulises’ scheme, and later suggests that they murder Perla for her inheritance. “She was a creature full of wants and she hungered,” Moreno-Garcia writes, “Against that hunger all thoughts of meekness and obedience melted away. Hell was reduced to a speck, a nothing.”
While these characters seemingly have nothing in common, each is a victim of circumstance. Ulises has no skills save what his father, also a con man, taught him. And he’s had enough. “He wasn’t made for this life, he simply wasn’t. Besides, he felt tired. He was fed up with the dinginess of his surroundings, the damn sleaze and the cheapness of it all.”
An orphan and the result of an affair, Inés feels trapped in Puerco Ahogado with its small-minded people. She wants to escape to a big city where no one knows or judges her: “Inés did not wish to marry…But she did not want to perish inside this house either. Crushed against its walls.”
And Perla has spent her whole life being the good daughter. She wants the freedom and opportunities she was once denied. The author tells us as much: “She’d spent many years chained to her father and she wanted to laugh in merriment. She was free of him; she was the mistress of this house. She could do as she pleased.”
The Intrigue is a fast-paced story that combines family scandal, salacious behaviour, and a murder just waiting to happen. I thought that the novel balanced these elements well, and there are so many excellent lines that picking quotes for this review proved difficult.
Moreno-Garcia does a fantastic job creating multi-faceted characters with conflicting agendas. I ended up sympathizing with Perla more than I expected. Her struggles don’t excuse her deplorable attitude towards Inés, but given what she went through as a young woman, I could at least see where she was coming from.
I did wish the divisions between Perla’s backstory and her POV in the main storyline were cleaner, differentiated by dates or new chapters rather than white spaces and a switch to present tense.
Additionally, I was a bit shocked by how quickly Ulises’ wooing progresses. Despite Perla’s excitement to have a new lover, it felt slightly unbelievable given her initial reluctance. And while I could understand each of the leads’ motivations, I never fully supported any of them. Even Inés was a little too unlikable.
Compared to Untamed Shore, the only other Moreno-Garcia noir I’ve read, The Intrigue comes out on top due to the historical context and family drama. Although I wouldn’t rank it in my top three, it’s an engaging read with some of her most complex characters and deliciously descriptive lines.
If you like noir set in 1940s Mexico with commentary on women’s roles and expectations, add The Intrigue to your reading list. Trust me, it’s one release you don’t want to pass up this year.
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Sophia Wasylinko graduated from VIU, where she contributed to student publications. She was also one of the founding members of GOOEY Magazine and edited its Fall 2025 issue. Sophia works as a library page and freelance content writer for Ichigo and spends much of her free time reading and revising one of her novels. She’s also on Bookstagram. While Sophia’s relocated to be with family in the Thompson-Nicola region, she hopes to return to the place that captured her heart: Vancouver Island. [Editor’s note: Sophia reviewed recent books by Tracey Lindberg, Nina Munteanu, Donna M. Henningson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Daniel Kalla, Matthew Hughes for BCR.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors: Trevor Marc Hughes (nonfiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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