Velvet was the Night

Mexico City in the 1970s is a dangerous place. Maite, a lonely secretary, prefers escaping into the romance of cheap comic books, turning a blind eye to the student protests and political unrest surrounding her. But when her glamorous next-door neighbor, Leonora—a beautiful art student—vanishes under suspicious circumstances, Maite is drawn into a search that pulls her far beyond her quiet routines and into Leonora’s hidden world of radicals and dissidents.

It is an equally treacherous time for Elvis, a hard-hitting enforcer with a love for rock ’n’ roll and little patience for politics. Assigned to track down Leonora, Elvis embarks on a brutal, blood-soaked hunt that forces him to confront not only the city’s corruption, but his own fading sense of humanity.

As their paths spiral closer, Maite and Elvis race through a shadowy Mexico of hitmen, government agents, and foreign spies, each desperate to uncover the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance. In a country where life is cheap and secrets are deadly, the cost of truth may be more than either of them can afford.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a simmering historical noir—an unforgettable tale of obsession, violence, and survival in a city where danger lurks in every shadow.