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The Queen Of The South
by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

9.0 based on 12 reviews read critic reviews how did we calculate this? based on 1 vote read user comments rate this book

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• Official Publisher Site

A remarkable tale, Perez-Reverte's The Queen of the South spans continents, from the dusty streets of Mexico to the sparkling waters off the coast of Morocco, to Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar. A sweeping story set to the irresistible beat of the drug smugglers' ballads, it encompasses sensuality and cruelty, love and betrayal, as its heroine's story unfolds. [Putnam]

Putnam Publishing Group, 544 pages
06/03/2004
$25.95

ISBN: 0399151850

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers

NOTES:
Translated into English (from the Spanish) by Andrew Hurley .

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Bill Ott

A thriller with an almost meditative tone, the novel's energy comes not only from the action scenes, which are expertly delivered, but also from the monologues in which Mendoza struggles with the multiple contradictions in her life. [1 Apr 2004, p.1331]

Entertainment Weekly Karen Karbo

Superbly translated by Andrew Hurley, the prose is as rich and dense as a flourless chocolate cake.

Los Angeles Times Nicholas A. Basbanes

All the core elements, after all, are here: love, violence, betrayal and honor, and Queen of the South seems certain to make its way to the silver screen.

Publishers Weekly

A frightening, fascinating look at the international business of transporting cocaine and hashish as well as a portrait of a smart, fast, daring and lucky woman.

The Guardian Julia Lovell

The novel is rarely less than a convincing and tightly plotted portrait of a savage world.

USA Today Susan Kelly

A brutal story, told beautifully.

Village Voice Jorge Morales

Pérez-Reverte's prose hums with the music of Mexican narco-corridos, songs of tragic loves, lawless adventures, and deadly betrayals.

Washington Post Jonathan Yardley

The result, in the end, is a book the reader simply cannot believe, much though the reader may want to.

TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Josh Lacey

Without the intellectual adornments of his previous books, Perez-Reverte looks ordinary.

The New York Times Book Review Michael Dibdin

An efficient, if slightly frigid, page turner.

Kirkus Reviews

Perez-Reverte at his best is a matchless entertainer. But this, his weakest novel, is a major disappointment.

Library Journal Lawrence Olszewski

The fast-paced narrative is interrupted occasionally by the commentary of the "narrator;" allegedly gathering information for this notorious woman's biography, a metafictional device of which the author fails to take full advantage. [15 May 2004, p.116]

The average user rating for this book is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stone J gave it a9:
"The telephone rang, and she knew she was going to die." If the old publishing axiom is true, that the opening sentence can make or break a novel, then Arturo Perez-Reverte has nothing to worry about. Long before The Da Vinci Code made cryptic mysteries popular, the Spanish author was mining the arcane to tremendous acclaim. Combining the historical passion of Umberto Eco with the intricate mystery sensibilities of Dashiell Hammett, readers were assured of byzantine mysteries of both captivating style and astonishing substance. A painting of a chess match may solve a hundred-years old murder in The Flanders Panel. A long-sought-after missing chapter of The Three Musketeers leads to devil worship in The Club Dumas (later made into the supremely disappointing film The Ninth Gate). Based on these past efforts, fans may be slightly frustrated with his latest, The Queen of the South. Abandoning his usual reliance on secret texts and ancient conspiracies, Perez-Reverte instead substitutes crime for mystery, venturing into James Ellroy territory with a tale of drug smugglers and codes of honour. Yet while, on the surface, it seems a more sedate affair, Perez-Reverte is simply incapable of writing a bad novel. Exhaustively researched and penned in riveting prose (masterfully translated by Andrew Hurley), The Queen of the South quickly becomes a mystery of character, and an incisive glimpse at a world all the more terrifying for its realism. "The Queen" is Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican from Sinaloa, where "dying violently was dying a natural death." Evolving from unassuming moll into an enigmatic leader whose detached focus on her situation "was virtually mathematical, so unemotional it chilled the heart," Teresa builds a Spanish criminal empire of power and cunning, while remaining a figure of intrigue to the nation. Perez-Reverte marries the story of Mendoza's rise with a journalist's investigation into her past, resulting in a Citizen Kane-styled mixture of personal reminiscences and expert foreshadowing. Think Orson Welles' classic by way of Brian DePalma's Scarface, with a soupcon of The Count of Monte Cristo for exotic flavour. As always, Perez-Reverte brings his worlds into being with unparalleled vigour. Teresa's life, filled with possible treachery and unlikely allies, alive with music that venerates the criminal, is animated in a manner few can match. It is a place of hideous plausibility, where a remark such as "I'll have his skin peeled off him in strips" is par for the course, and "overconfidence kills more people than bullets." Teresa herself is one of Perez-Reverte's finest creations, a deeply complicated woman whose hidden depths of strength are unlimited. Much like Brazilian author Paulo Coelho's recent novel Eleven Minutes, The Queen is a portrait of a woman finding the centre of her self. Unlike Coelho's exercise in superficiality, fortunately, Perez-Reverte never lets the story become a treatise on female empowerment, making sure both story and character are integral to each other. Even for such a pre-eminent master, The Queen of the South is superlative. At once a marvellous character study and a fast-paced criminal thriller, this is Perez-Reverte at his best.

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