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Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She's bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners' lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future.
When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone's asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances. Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman who is quickly being tangled in a web of deceit.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most exciting voices in fiction, and with her first crime novel, UNTAMED SHORE, she crafts a blazing novel of suspense with an eerie seaside setting and a literary edge that proves her a master of the genre.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 1, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781980059585
- File size: 231243 KB
- Duration: 08:01:45
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 9, 2019
Fantasy author Moreno-Garcia (Gods of Jade and Shadow) ventures into thriller territory with mixed success in this noir set in 1979 Baja California. Life for 18-year-old Viridiana in the “nothing at all” town of Desengaño has been full of dull, senseless duty that she yearns to escape. When wealthy American Ambrose Allerton—an older man who’s renting a house with his trophy wife, Daisy, and her handsome brother, Gregory—offers Viridiana a summer job to be his secretary, she gladly accepts. But her good fortune doesn’t last. After a drunken Ambrose takes a fatal fall down some stairs, suspicion falls on Daisy and Gregory. After agreeing to lie on their behalf, Viridiana becomes a suspect in Ambrose’s murder. Fueled by her thirst for exotic adventure, she begins a highly charged affair with Gregory, but sordid reality soon catches up with her. Moreno-Garcia’s unsparing delineation of a ferocious land compensates in part for Viridiana’s somewhat unconvincing dreams of Hollywood romance. Fans of the author’s fantasy novels may want to take a pass. Agent: Eddie Schneider, JABberwocky Literary. -
Narrator Maria Liatis captures the youthful innocence and frustrations of a teenage girl trapped in a dying Baja town in this new audiobook. Viridiana is named after a movie star, but she finds herself condemned to spend time acting as a translator and tourist guide. When a writer, his wife, and her brother come to town, Viridiana ends up as both their translator and a pawn in a murder scheme. Liatis perfectly embraces Viridiana's youthful tone and conflicted emotions in a powerful performance. She clearly gives her all to the role, inserting listeners into Viridiana's unexpected nightmare. V.B. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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