The new crime thriller, Sayulita Sucker by Canadian author Craig Terlson, takes readers for a wild ride to back alleys and dicey neighbourhoods in coastal Mexico that aren’t featured in any guidebook. The story’s protagonist is Luke Fischer, who has featured in three of Terlson’s previous novels. He barrels through the pages as unstoppable as a locomotive.
Luke is not always polite, he prefers beer to wine, and he raises a dust storm wherever he goes. Underneath all that, though, you have to think his heart is in the right place because, even though he’s not officially a private detective, he has an uncanny knack for finding missing people. He gets asked to help, he quarrels, he quibbles, he questions, he equivocates, and then he takes the job.
In this story, he’s staying in the popular Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta when he’s visited by a man sent by his friend and occasional employer, Benno. The man’s teenage daughter Soleil has disappeared and he wants Luke to find her. The arrangement almost doesn’t come off, due to Luke’s frequent wisecracking. You’ll understand he’s a smart-aleck, but the Mexicans, especially the distraught father don’t appreciate it, proving once again that it’s very hard to convey humour in a foreign language and culture. Eventually, though, with the promise of a hefty payment and expenses covered, the deal is set.
Luke searches for Soleil in the town of Sayulita, a noted surfing spot, and the even smaller town of Bucerias, both places where her father suspects she might have gone. She has friends in Bucerias and her heavily tattooed American boyfriend is a surfer who hangs out in Sayulita. The way the towns are described makes them easy to picture. Their colourful shops and streets and their residents’ laid-back manner contrast sharply with the sinister goings-on that Luke discovers behind adobe walls.
The suspicions of the local bad guys seem to be aroused by Luke’s presence for some reason. Is it his abrasive interpersonal style, the questions he shouldn’t be asking, or has someone tipped them off? Whichever, some dicey interactions take place, and only when Luke meets a young woman selling handwoven fabrics in a market stall does he have a real and unthreatening conversation with a local.
She’s put off by his manner at first too, but explains how her family has become very careful of strangers since her sister was kidnapped by traffickers. She’s been missing for months now, and they don’t know where she’s been taken. Bits and pieces of what Luke has been hearing start to fall into place, and he vows to keep a lookout for the sister while he’s searching for Soleil.
Through his bus trips among the three towns, Luke comes off as something of a slacker, more concerned about his next beer than whatever investigating he could be doing. But, as luck would have it, he’s a skilled fighter when the need arises, and there are several lively knock-down-drag-outs in this story. It’s enough to get him through his hangovers in any case.
The search for Soleil promises to be difficult, and is. Aside from the security precautions of whoever has her, Luke, with his indifferent Spanish, is up against the factor that makes international thrillers so appealing. Cultural differences add a layer of strangeness, you could say otherworldliness, to any story. People are hard to read, situations are ambiguous, meaning is elusive. Someone with Luke’s bull-in-a-china-shop way of working will inevitably find trouble. Exactly what thriller readers are looking for!
Like the other Craig Terlson book I’ve read, this one provides a little lagniappe – a bonus short story.
Read our interview with the author. For surfing and disappearances with a darker tone see Kem Nunn’s Tapping the Source.
Ethelbert House
Print/Kindle
£3.25
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
