The Intrigue

Whether she’s writing horror, historical fiction, or fantasy, I always enjoy Silvia Moreno-Garcia‘s books. Her newest release is The Intrigue, a noir set in a small Mexican town in 1943. Ulises Linares was born and raised to be a conman, and he’s hoping to finally make a big score by wedding a wealthy spinster. So he heads to Puerco Ahogado to seduce and marry Perla Inclán. But there are problmes to contend with: her adult niece, Inés; the man who’s been courting her for years, Cándido; even the private investigator hunting Ulises down from his previous attempted con. Ulises doesn’t expect to team up with Inés, though, nor to fall for her while they both try to rob her aunt.

What I Liked:

• It’s fun! Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s skill spans genres and tones, and The Intrigue may be her funniest and most entertaining novel yet. It has a lighthearted air about it, despite all the deceit and murder going on. The tongue-in-cheek quality made it a strangely delightful page-turner. In the author’s note, she states her inspiration of costumbrista novels, telenovelas, and the “pulpiness” of the latter. Indeed, this novel is pulpy noir with morally gray characters you can’t help but enjoy reading about.
• Who’s the villain? Ulises has arrived in Puerco Ahogado with the sole intention of marrying Perla and stealing all her money. Perla’s niece Inés has put up with being little more than a caged servant for long enough, and she’s ready to take drastic measures. When Ulises and Inés team up, planning to murder Perla and split the inheritance, they’re surely the villains of the story… right? What about Perla’s secret misdeeds? And her longterm suitor, the odious Cándido? When the target for murder is also a villain, does that make our naughty protagonists any less bad?
• Atmospheric setting. The Intrigue takes place in the fictional town of Puerco Ahogado, a foggy, muggy mountainside town inspired by Xalapa in the state of Veracruz. The humid subtropical climate lends a certain suffocation to the setting. And although the year is 1943, the townspeople cling to outdated customs, putting the older (and wealthier) characters at odds with the younger ones. As Ulises muses towards the end of the book, Puerco Ahogado is boring enough to inspire anyone to kill. The town certainly feels like a place to escape from, at least!

Final Thoughts

The Intrigue is a gripping, unexpectedly playful novel about bad people doing bad things… and somehow not seeming as disagreeable as they should. I enjoyed every second of this book, and it’s going down among my favorites by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. As always, I look forward to whatever she releases next.

Special thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Intrigue here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Audience	Adult
Genre	Noir; Historical Fiction
Setting	Mexico
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	July 7, 2026
Publisher	Del Rey

Official Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con.

“Lush and passionate with magnetic prose . . . The Intrigue will grab you by the throat and not let go until its earth-shaking finale!” —S. A. Cosby, author of King of Ashes

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: The New York Times, People, Book Riot, Southern Living, Marie Claire, Time

Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters in order to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won’t last forever, and he’s desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.

He thinks he’s found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn’t expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.

When Inés discovers Ulises’s true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast, and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained for. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.

Venture into the streets of a small town where a patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.