Helpful Score: 3
Quite a departure for Perez-Reverte (not an art-mystery or an historical swashbuckler) - but possibly his most heavy-hitting work to date. After the first couple of chapters, my first thought was, 'this is just like a Quentin Tarantino film!' However, the book as a whole is much more insightful and thoughtful - if just as violent.
This story of the rise of a female drug-runner, told both from her perspective and that of an investigative journalist writing a book of her life, may show the author's past as a war journalist. One comes away from this book feeling that you truly know the milieu, the danger, the people and the motivations... and that likely a lot of the book is fact.
Pulls no punches.. and while a lot of it is exciting and suspenseful, it is also tense, disturbing, and often sad.
One of the best parts of reading is that it can truly open windows into other cultures, other perspectives - this book definitely succeeded in doing that for me.
This story of the rise of a female drug-runner, told both from her perspective and that of an investigative journalist writing a book of her life, may show the author's past as a war journalist. One comes away from this book feeling that you truly know the milieu, the danger, the people and the motivations... and that likely a lot of the book is fact.
Pulls no punches.. and while a lot of it is exciting and suspenseful, it is also tense, disturbing, and often sad.
One of the best parts of reading is that it can truly open windows into other cultures, other perspectives - this book definitely succeeded in doing that for me.
Helpful Score: 2
Story of a woman who is lured into drug smuggling. It's a very gripping read with moments of action and terror and others of tenderness. You'll enjoy it.
Helpful Score: 1
I liked this author so much, I got three other books by him. It was a little slow at first, but once the story got going, it was very good. I love the Spanish culture and this story tells about the drug trade, things I never knew!
Helpful Score: 1
Well written, but a little too tragic for me.
Helpful Score: 1
This book will hold your interest, start to finish.
Helpful Score: 1
This book departs from Perez-Reverte's historical focus (as found in the Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel). This is a look into the very modern, very seedy world of drugs in Spain and Mexico. I wasn't particularly fond of the end, but the rest of the book was very interesting.
My wife and I binge-watched the TV series, The Queen of the South that aired originally on the USA Network and really enjoyed it. Then my wife decided to also watch the telenovela La Reina del Sur on which the English version was based (my wife has Mexican roots and is fluent in Spanish). She also enjoyed that version but noted many differences between the two. Both of these TV series were based on the novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
I decided to read the novel to see how it compared with the TV series. I must say, the novel was pretty much completely different from the American series although my wife says the Spanish version was more in line with the novel. The novel tells the story of Mexicana Teresa Mendoza's rise to power after the death of her drug-running pilot boyfriend Güero Davila. The novel also has a second narrative by an unnamed journalist who is trying to write a book about Mendoza. After her boyfriend's death, Teresa flees to Spain with the help of her godfather, Epifanio Vargas who is also a narco in Mexico and an up and coming politician. In Spain she meets another drug-runner Santiago Fisterra (who becomes her boyfriend). But this leads to an unfortunate adventure that lands Teresa in prison where she meets her future partner, Patty O'Farrell. Patty is well-educated and gets Teresa interested in reading, especially The Count of Monte Cristo which seems to mirror Teresa's life. After release from prison, Patty introduces Teresa to Teo Aljarfe, an attorney who is instrumental in Teresa's rise to power as a supplier of cocaine and hash in the Mediterranean area. But who can Teresa trust and will she be able to maintain her empire?
I did enjoy this novel for the most part but it was quite different than the American TV series. In it, Teresa flees to Texas and on to New Orleans rather than Spain. The series included many characters not in the novel but overall I found both interesting. I especially liked in the novel how Teresa's life seemed to follow what happened in The Count of Monte Cristo, a novel I have never read that has been on my TBR list for yearsâmaybe this will motivate me to read it. I also will be looking forward to reading more by Perez-Reverte.
I decided to read the novel to see how it compared with the TV series. I must say, the novel was pretty much completely different from the American series although my wife says the Spanish version was more in line with the novel. The novel tells the story of Mexicana Teresa Mendoza's rise to power after the death of her drug-running pilot boyfriend Güero Davila. The novel also has a second narrative by an unnamed journalist who is trying to write a book about Mendoza. After her boyfriend's death, Teresa flees to Spain with the help of her godfather, Epifanio Vargas who is also a narco in Mexico and an up and coming politician. In Spain she meets another drug-runner Santiago Fisterra (who becomes her boyfriend). But this leads to an unfortunate adventure that lands Teresa in prison where she meets her future partner, Patty O'Farrell. Patty is well-educated and gets Teresa interested in reading, especially The Count of Monte Cristo which seems to mirror Teresa's life. After release from prison, Patty introduces Teresa to Teo Aljarfe, an attorney who is instrumental in Teresa's rise to power as a supplier of cocaine and hash in the Mediterranean area. But who can Teresa trust and will she be able to maintain her empire?
I did enjoy this novel for the most part but it was quite different than the American TV series. In it, Teresa flees to Texas and on to New Orleans rather than Spain. The series included many characters not in the novel but overall I found both interesting. I especially liked in the novel how Teresa's life seemed to follow what happened in The Count of Monte Cristo, a novel I have never read that has been on my TBR list for yearsâmaybe this will motivate me to read it. I also will be looking forward to reading more by Perez-Reverte.
This is the best book for action and adventure. It is about a women who becomes involved in the Mexican drug trade. The action, description is super. Hard to put down
This is one of my favorite novels. I have read it several times and loaned it to my friends. The plotting is fast paced, the characters ring true and the anti-heroine one of my favorites.
This was not a topic or subject matter I would normally read about, in fact I avoided the book for quite a while and let it sit on the shelf. Having said that, I did read it, stuck with it, wondered how it would end, stayed with the story. It was well written in the sense that it held together, progressed evenly, was understandable, all of that. I found a quote from the book itself that summed it up for me: "Maybe old age when it comes, is about looking back and seeing the many strangers that you have been, and in whom you can't quite recognize yourself."
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
The name of Edmond Dantès does not appear until more than 150 pages into Arturo Pérez-Reverte's sixth novel, but by then the reader already has figured out that The Queen of the South is a variation upon Dantès's story as told by Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo. This is scarcely surprising, since the plot of Pérez-Reverte's second novel, The Club Dumas (1997), revolves around a fragment of the manuscript of The Three Musketeers, and since the influence of Dumas is self-evident in all the rest of Pérez-Reverte's work.
Like the great 19th-century French novelist whom he so openly and unapologetically emulates, Pérez-Reverte is drawn to elaborate plots adorned with numerous subplots, full-speed-ahead narrative, outsized characters and a degree of intellectual seriousness not ordinarily associated with bestseller-list fiction. Formerly a journalist, he puts his reporter's skills to work in the accumulation of intricate detail and the evocation of exotic cities and landscapes. His work is a great deal of fun to read and offers the bonus of substance as well as style.
Like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Queen of the South is a story of betrayal and revenge. The betrayed is Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican in her early twenties whose boyfriend, a pilot and drug-runner named Raimundo Davila Parra, aka Guero, is killed when his plane is shot down by a couple of hit men in the employ of . . . in the employ of whom is one of the mysteries not solved until the novel's closing pages. In any event, what matters more than naming names is the effect of the killing on Teresa Mendoza....
The name of Edmond Dantès does not appear until more than 150 pages into Arturo Pérez-Reverte's sixth novel, but by then the reader already has figured out that The Queen of the South is a variation upon Dantès's story as told by Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo. This is scarcely surprising, since the plot of Pérez-Reverte's second novel, The Club Dumas (1997), revolves around a fragment of the manuscript of The Three Musketeers, and since the influence of Dumas is self-evident in all the rest of Pérez-Reverte's work.
Like the great 19th-century French novelist whom he so openly and unapologetically emulates, Pérez-Reverte is drawn to elaborate plots adorned with numerous subplots, full-speed-ahead narrative, outsized characters and a degree of intellectual seriousness not ordinarily associated with bestseller-list fiction. Formerly a journalist, he puts his reporter's skills to work in the accumulation of intricate detail and the evocation of exotic cities and landscapes. His work is a great deal of fun to read and offers the bonus of substance as well as style.
Like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Queen of the South is a story of betrayal and revenge. The betrayed is Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican in her early twenties whose boyfriend, a pilot and drug-runner named Raimundo Davila Parra, aka Guero, is killed when his plane is shot down by a couple of hit men in the employ of . . . in the employ of whom is one of the mysteries not solved until the novel's closing pages. In any event, what matters more than naming names is the effect of the killing on Teresa Mendoza....
