The Intrigue
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Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published: 2026
Genre: Other Genre
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IBC Editorial Rating: 3.5/5
This book is handpicked by the IBC Editorial Team. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to have a book reviewed by IBC, you may reach us at editorial@indianbookclub.com — we’ll be happy to review it.
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Editorial Review:
Handsome con artist Ulises has spent years charming lonely women out of their savings through letters, but money is harder to come by than it used to be, and he knows his looks will not last forever in 1940s Mexico. He believes he has finally found his biggest score in Perla, the owner of a small boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he arrives to meet her in person, he discovers something he never accounted for: Perla's sharp, restless niece Inés, who sees through him immediately and wants in on the scheme herself. What should be a simple con- marry Perla, drain her savings, disappear- grows steadily more complicated as Ulises discovers that neither woman is quite who he assumed. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's historical noir is a sultry, cunning story about desire, greed, and the danger of underestimating the people you set out to deceive.
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Book Summary:
Ulises Linares has built a modest, precarious living writing letters to lonely women through newspaper personal columns, charming them into sending him money on the promise of a romance that will never actually arrive. Aging out of his usefulness as a con man and desperate for one final, substantial score, he sets his sights on Perla, a widow who owns a boardinghouse in the small Veracruz town of Puerco Ahogado. His plan seems simple enough until he actually arrives and meets Inés, Perla's observant, restless niece, who recognizes exactly what Ulises is doing almost immediately. Rather than expose him, Inés proposes something else entirely: she will help convince her aunt that Ulises is a worthy match, Perla will marry him, and together they will split whatever fortune disappears from her accounts once the marriage is secured. What none of them account for is that Perla is not the naive, desperate spinster Ulises assumed her to be. As the scheme unfolds, layers of the household's history begin to surface, revealing secrets belonging to Perla, her family, and the town itself that complicate the simple con far beyond anything Ulises or Inés anticipated. Along the way, Ulises finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Inés in ways that threaten to derail the entire plan. Moreno-Garcia builds the novel through alternating perspectives, weaving Perla's own history into the present-day scheme and giving the story a rich, layered sense of place as the small town's polished surface gives way to something far more dangerous underneath.
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Key Takeaways:
"Deception as survival strategy": For Ulises and Inés alike, deception functions less as pure villainy than as one of the few tools available to people with limited options, and Moreno-Garcia is thoughtful about what it means to scheme your way toward freedom in a world that offers so few honest paths to it. "Women's constrained choices in a rigid era": Both Perla and Inés navigate a world where marriage functions as one of the only real avenues to financial security, and the novel is pointed about how thoroughly that constraint shapes their choices, however unconventional those choices end up looking. "Underestimating the people you try to use": Ulises's entire plan rests on the assumption that Perla is an easy, gullible mark, and the novel takes real pleasure in dismantling that assumption piece by piece, rewarding readers who enjoy watching a con artist meet his match. "Desire complicating a clean plan": Ulises's growing attraction to Inés threatens to undo the careful simplicity of the scheme, and Moreno-Garcia uses that unplanned pull to explore how genuine feeling disrupts even the most calculated plans.
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Iconic Lines, Scenes & Characters:
Ulises: A charming, aging con man whose confidence in his own scheme is steadily eroded by the women he underestimates, Ulises makes for a compellingly flawed antihero whose missteps are as entertaining as his charm. Perla: Far from the desperate spinster Ulises expects, Perla emerges as one of the novel's richest characters, her own hidden history adding real depth and unpredictability to the unfolding con. Inés: Sharp, observant, and desperate to escape her aunt's household, Inés's decision to join rather than expose Ulises's scheme drives much of the novel's tension and gives the story its most unpredictable dynamic. The Veracruz boardinghouse setting: Rendered with vivid period detail, the crumbling boardinghouse and its small town become a fully realized backdrop where genteel convention barely conceals deeper currents of greed and desire.
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Who Should Read This:
Readers who love historical noir with morally complicated characters will find Ulises, Perla, and Inés's entangled scheme a genuinely satisfying slow burn. Anyone drawn to multi-perspective narratives that reveal layered family histories alongside a present-day plot will appreciate how richly Moreno-Garcia builds Perla's backstory into the unfolding con. Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's genre-hopping work, particularly her forays into noir like Velvet Was the Night, will recognize her sharp eye for period detail and complex female characters here. A note on pacing: this is a deliberately slow-burn novel that favors character development and atmosphere over rapid plot turns, so readers looking for a fast-paced thriller should know the story takes its time, rewarding patience with rich payoff by its final act.
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IBC Editorial Note:
This review is part of the Indian Book Club’s editorial initiative to spotlight books that inspire, inform, and leave a lasting impact on readers. Every title featured is carefully handpicked and reviewed by the IBC Editorial Team to maintain quality, authenticity, and literary value. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to submit a book for review, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please write to us at: editorial@indianbookclub.com Our team personally evaluates each submission, and selected books are featured as official IBC Editorial Reviews on our platform.