Noir set in 1943 in a small mountain town in Veracruz. Ulises is a con man who works through the mail and marries lonely women for their money. His current mark is Perla, a spinster who owns a boardinghouse — but her niece Inés, stuck in the house and looking for a way out, reads him immediately and offers to help him instead of exposing him. Told from all three points of view, none of them clean. Moreno-Garcia cites costumbrista novels and telenovelas as inspiration, and the reviews keep reaching for Double Indemnity and James M. Cain.
The Intrigue