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kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
4.0
Dark humour, brutal murder, appalling degradation, unrelenting poverty and corrupt law enforcement all combine to create something challenging, and thought-provoking in CITY WITHOUT STARS. Following on from his first novel FEVER CITY (shortlisted for the CWA's John Creasey New Blood Dagger, and nominated for the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award for best first novel), Tim Baker, has created a view of Mexico in this second novel that's confronting and discomforting.
In amongst the heat, noise and sheer pulse of life within Ciudad Real, there are stories of women going missing, found brutally murdered. As the storyline bounces between descriptive passages on the deprivation of the town, the heat and dry desert surrounds, there are the stories of the foreign run factories, where many of these victims work. Mostly female workers, exploited by low pay and gruelling shifts, violence and sexual abuse always at the edges, the air of menace and threat builds, much like the heat haze builds as the weather imposes it's restrictions on life as well.
At the centre of all of this union activist Pilar, decides enough is enough, but her only ally turns out to be somebody from the corrupt law enforcement agencies. Pilar and Fuentes have to find a way to work together, and a way through the maze of corruption, and influence.
Dripping violence, and threat, reader's may find aspects of CITY WITHOUT STARS overwhelming. There were definitely points where this reader felt out of her depth. Everybody is corrupt - from the police force, to the factory bosses, the Catholic hierarchy, city officials and drug cartels. The disregard for life and dignity, the pursuit of money at all costs is lightened by the two main characters Baker is building here, with Pilar and Fuentes inspiring, without overblowing that aspect, and interesting, without making them too perfect for words.
The flurries of dark humour help enormously though, and whilst this is definitely the sort of book that you're going to find challenging, it's obviously supposed to be. CITY WITHOUT STARS is dark noir styled crime fiction, where the worst of human behaviour is dissected, flayed out, laid bare, called for what it is. No excuses, no cover ups, no pretence.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/city-without-stars-tim-baker
In amongst the heat, noise and sheer pulse of life within Ciudad Real, there are stories of women going missing, found brutally murdered. As the storyline bounces between descriptive passages on the deprivation of the town, the heat and dry desert surrounds, there are the stories of the foreign run factories, where many of these victims work. Mostly female workers, exploited by low pay and gruelling shifts, violence and sexual abuse always at the edges, the air of menace and threat builds, much like the heat haze builds as the weather imposes it's restrictions on life as well.
At the centre of all of this union activist Pilar, decides enough is enough, but her only ally turns out to be somebody from the corrupt law enforcement agencies. Pilar and Fuentes have to find a way to work together, and a way through the maze of corruption, and influence.
Dripping violence, and threat, reader's may find aspects of CITY WITHOUT STARS overwhelming. There were definitely points where this reader felt out of her depth. Everybody is corrupt - from the police force, to the factory bosses, the Catholic hierarchy, city officials and drug cartels. The disregard for life and dignity, the pursuit of money at all costs is lightened by the two main characters Baker is building here, with Pilar and Fuentes inspiring, without overblowing that aspect, and interesting, without making them too perfect for words.
The flurries of dark humour help enormously though, and whilst this is definitely the sort of book that you're going to find challenging, it's obviously supposed to be. CITY WITHOUT STARS is dark noir styled crime fiction, where the worst of human behaviour is dissected, flayed out, laid bare, called for what it is. No excuses, no cover ups, no pretence.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/city-without-stars-tim-baker
daniel_mc_adam's review against another edition
5.0
An amazing book on The Drug Kingpins in Mexico based on the US Mexico border.
A great blend of characters that you will definitely enjoy.
I read it in two sittings.
A great blend of characters that you will definitely enjoy.
I read it in two sittings.
thebooktrail88's review against another edition
5.0
Enter the City without stars here
This is book is like a punch to the gut.
Then a stab in the heart
I have heard and read a lot about cities ravaged by drug cartels in Mexico as a student of Spanish and this really honed in on many of the grittier and unmentionable themes of what drugs and the drug trade means for the man and woman on the street. It's not for the faint hearted - scenes are graphic and unforgiving as is the language. Raw and brutal on every level.
There is some great writing here and even some humour – Felipe for example is described as “MoreMichelin than Goodyear” and his character is one I really enjoyed getting to know. I admired and feared for him and felt very keen to find out more about him and follow his investigation.
The historical and social background to this story however is the real selling point. The massacres and drug wars described in the book may be fictionalised here but they are real. Devastating drug wars and needless, senseless killings of women. It’s a war every day and seeing it evoked so well here in fiction is both frightening and gripping.
Hard hitting and honest. A city ravaged by fear and more. Brutally good.
shelfofunread's review against another edition
3.0
Reading a book that’s outside of your comfort zone can be scary – you don’t get that warm blanket of instant familiarity and have to fight against the bit of your reading brain that says you won’t enjoy it. But getting away from your reading comfort blanket can be extremely rewarding too – the books challenge and engage, providing different input and exposure to new scenarios, new characters and new writing style.
This, in a nutshell, was my experience reading City Without Stars. The novel is a gritty urban thriller set in Ciudad Real, Mexico. Amidst a deadly war between rival cartels, hundreds of sweatshop workers are being murdered. It’s not afraid to show the gritty reality of life and the descriptions of Ciudad Real, from the slick offices of the wealthy to the slums and sweatshops that house so many people, are evocatively described. The characters, similarly, feel real. These are not nice people – there are no heroes in this novel – but they are people, real and flawed and with a range of complex emotions and reasoning behind what they do.
This combines to create a fantastically taut atmosphere, tense and claustrophobic with a growing sense of the net tightening as the story progresses. It’s extremely compelling and definitely has that page-turning quality. Even the violence, which is frequent and bloody, and the language, with an f-bomb on every page, didn’t feel unnecessary – yes, it’s unpalatable but that’s because it’s meant to be. There are no off-page deaths here – if it happens, the reader experiences it because the characters experience it and it feels frighteningly real.
Whilst I wouldn’t say it’s converted me to a reading diet of gritty underworld crime, it was a novel that broadened my horizons – the Latin American setting was a new one to me and I found the challenges of investigating amidst the drugs war and the internal corruption to well-conceived and though-provoking. It’s not a novel for the faint-hearted but fans of hard-boiled detective novels and urban thrillers will definitely find a page-turning, compelling read in City Without Stars.
This is an edited version of a full review which appeared as part of the City Without Stars blog tour on my blog, https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com. My thanks go to the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest and unbiased review.
This, in a nutshell, was my experience reading City Without Stars. The novel is a gritty urban thriller set in Ciudad Real, Mexico. Amidst a deadly war between rival cartels, hundreds of sweatshop workers are being murdered. It’s not afraid to show the gritty reality of life and the descriptions of Ciudad Real, from the slick offices of the wealthy to the slums and sweatshops that house so many people, are evocatively described. The characters, similarly, feel real. These are not nice people – there are no heroes in this novel – but they are people, real and flawed and with a range of complex emotions and reasoning behind what they do.
This combines to create a fantastically taut atmosphere, tense and claustrophobic with a growing sense of the net tightening as the story progresses. It’s extremely compelling and definitely has that page-turning quality. Even the violence, which is frequent and bloody, and the language, with an f-bomb on every page, didn’t feel unnecessary – yes, it’s unpalatable but that’s because it’s meant to be. There are no off-page deaths here – if it happens, the reader experiences it because the characters experience it and it feels frighteningly real.
Whilst I wouldn’t say it’s converted me to a reading diet of gritty underworld crime, it was a novel that broadened my horizons – the Latin American setting was a new one to me and I found the challenges of investigating amidst the drugs war and the internal corruption to well-conceived and though-provoking. It’s not a novel for the faint-hearted but fans of hard-boiled detective novels and urban thrillers will definitely find a page-turning, compelling read in City Without Stars.
This is an edited version of a full review which appeared as part of the City Without Stars blog tour on my blog, https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com. My thanks go to the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest and unbiased review.
raven88's review
5.0
Tim Baker burst onto the Raven’s radar a couple of years ago with the brilliant Fever City – a skilful and mesmerising reimagining of the events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination. Having waited patiently, okay, somewhat impatiently- for his next book, City Without Stars plunges us into the nightmarish realities of life in Mexico, and presents the reader with a searing indictment of lives lived in the shadow of the cartels, corrupt law enforcement, unrelenting poverty, and female exploitation…
Harbouring a deep fascination with Mexico for many years, and citing The Power of The Dog by Don Winslow as quite possibly my favourite crime thriller ever, there was a palpable sense of excitement on embarking on this book. I will say quickly that I could not have been more satisfied with Baker’s exploration into, and intuitive depiction of life in the violent and corrupt surrounds of Ciudad Real. Punctuated by references to the well documented cases of scores of women disappearing, and being found brutally murdered, which by their inclusion crash into the reader’s consciousness throughout, City Without Stars is a claustrophobic and intensely compelling thriller.
The whole book is alive with the feel and atmosphere of the city itself, the heat, the noise, the grime and the sense of hopeless lives lived in the shadow of corrupt wealth and criminal activity. I really felt the harshness of the bleak desert terrain, the final resting place of the many female victims, and each time we encounter it there is an air of menace and threat that envelops you completely. Equally, the grinding poverty of the city, is prevalent throughout, particularly when Baker takes us in to the world of the maquiladoras – Mexican factories run by foreign companies, that export goods back to that company’s country of origin- and trains our attention completely on the exploitation of the women that they employ, with gruelling shift work, a pittance of pay and the malevolent shadow of violence and sexual abuse. Pilar is a mesmerising character, working as a union agitator, and seeking to spur these women on to challenge their feudal bosses, and to improve their working conditions. Baker not only captures her unrelenting crusade and her strength of character, but also hammers home to the reader the doubt and fear of those she tries to encourage to rise up and rebel. She is a real force of nature, and when she crosses paths with Fuentes, an isolated incorruptible cop, there is a wonderful frisson of suspicion and distrust between them that drives the book on. I think Baker captures the female voices of this book perfectly in this macho, patriarchal society, sensitively portraying the level of threat and violence they encounter, but also showing the strength of spirit they have to draw on to simply survive day to day. It’s beautifully handled, and gives rise to some of the most raw, emotional, and moving passages of the book- the writing is superb.
The whole book is underpinned with the stink of corruption, as Baker expands the plot throughout to encompass the deadly influence of the cartels, the rife corruption in the police force, and in this staunchly Catholic country, the seedy and immoral actions of the priesthood. These purveyors of misery, violence and greed, coil together like a roiling nest of snakes, impervious to punishment, and where life and death are treated with a dispassionate and cool contempt. The characters who inhabit these treacherous worlds are, to a man, brilliantly wrought, and you increasingly feel sickened, yet oddly intrigued, by the way they operate and prosper, feeding off the vulnerable and the addicted. The cartel boss, the priests, the police chief, and the factory owners all come under intense scrutiny, and you find yourself unable to look away from the depths of their depravity.
City Without Stars is an intense, emotive and completely absorbing read, suffused with a violent energy, and with an unrelenting pace to its narrative. It heightens the reader’s senses and imagination throughout, completely enveloping the reader in this corrupt and violent society, with instances of intense human frailty and moments of strength, underpinned by precise description, and flurries of dark humour.
Harbouring a deep fascination with Mexico for many years, and citing The Power of The Dog by Don Winslow as quite possibly my favourite crime thriller ever, there was a palpable sense of excitement on embarking on this book. I will say quickly that I could not have been more satisfied with Baker’s exploration into, and intuitive depiction of life in the violent and corrupt surrounds of Ciudad Real. Punctuated by references to the well documented cases of scores of women disappearing, and being found brutally murdered, which by their inclusion crash into the reader’s consciousness throughout, City Without Stars is a claustrophobic and intensely compelling thriller.
The whole book is alive with the feel and atmosphere of the city itself, the heat, the noise, the grime and the sense of hopeless lives lived in the shadow of corrupt wealth and criminal activity. I really felt the harshness of the bleak desert terrain, the final resting place of the many female victims, and each time we encounter it there is an air of menace and threat that envelops you completely. Equally, the grinding poverty of the city, is prevalent throughout, particularly when Baker takes us in to the world of the maquiladoras – Mexican factories run by foreign companies, that export goods back to that company’s country of origin- and trains our attention completely on the exploitation of the women that they employ, with gruelling shift work, a pittance of pay and the malevolent shadow of violence and sexual abuse. Pilar is a mesmerising character, working as a union agitator, and seeking to spur these women on to challenge their feudal bosses, and to improve their working conditions. Baker not only captures her unrelenting crusade and her strength of character, but also hammers home to the reader the doubt and fear of those she tries to encourage to rise up and rebel. She is a real force of nature, and when she crosses paths with Fuentes, an isolated incorruptible cop, there is a wonderful frisson of suspicion and distrust between them that drives the book on. I think Baker captures the female voices of this book perfectly in this macho, patriarchal society, sensitively portraying the level of threat and violence they encounter, but also showing the strength of spirit they have to draw on to simply survive day to day. It’s beautifully handled, and gives rise to some of the most raw, emotional, and moving passages of the book- the writing is superb.
The whole book is underpinned with the stink of corruption, as Baker expands the plot throughout to encompass the deadly influence of the cartels, the rife corruption in the police force, and in this staunchly Catholic country, the seedy and immoral actions of the priesthood. These purveyors of misery, violence and greed, coil together like a roiling nest of snakes, impervious to punishment, and where life and death are treated with a dispassionate and cool contempt. The characters who inhabit these treacherous worlds are, to a man, brilliantly wrought, and you increasingly feel sickened, yet oddly intrigued, by the way they operate and prosper, feeding off the vulnerable and the addicted. The cartel boss, the priests, the police chief, and the factory owners all come under intense scrutiny, and you find yourself unable to look away from the depths of their depravity.
City Without Stars is an intense, emotive and completely absorbing read, suffused with a violent energy, and with an unrelenting pace to its narrative. It heightens the reader’s senses and imagination throughout, completely enveloping the reader in this corrupt and violent society, with instances of intense human frailty and moments of strength, underpinned by precise description, and flurries of dark humour.
charlotte2609's review against another edition
Incredibly overwritten, and I'm a bit uncomfy with a white guy writing about Mexican drug cartels and exploited women
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