The Shamshine Blind

September 1, 2022

Having developed visually vivid weapons called psychopigments that can spark almost human emotion on contact, Argentina won the Falklands War, and by 2009 the United States has become a backwater. Psychopigment Enforcement Agent Kay Curtida works small-town incidents outside of wrecked San Francisco until a big case leads her to a conspiracy. A debut from Argentine American playwright Pardo.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2023
In a near future where Argentina triumphed over Britain in the 1982 Falklands War, an ambitious small-town American cop tries to unravel a case that could cost no less than her mind. High, high concept meets classic detective fiction in this debut, which manages to turn noir into a multicolored rainbow of psychedelia. Argentine American novelist Pardo imagines here a world where wars are long since lost and street battles between biotech, drug dealers, and the fuzz are fought with paint guns, albeit of a psychotropic variety. Agent Kay Curtida works for a federal law enforcement branch dedicated to policing "psychopigments," a hallucinogenic dye developed by Argentine military scientists that's now strictly regulated for medical and military use but has naturally found its way into the American drug trade. "So it's like paintball, but with feelings?" asks a brochure. "Sure. But any way it gets inside you---sinking through your skin, breathed in through your mouth, or eaten--it's going to give you some gnarly emotions." Curtida, a depressive herself who needs Sunshine Yellow to function, is hoping to break out of her small Silicon Valley territory (big cities having been wiped out in some kind of global conflict), so when an old pal from the academy gives her a lead on a black-market cartel, she hopes it's her entry into the big time. As Curtida and her green cadet partner pound shoe leather running down leads, it's not so much the mystery that thrills as much as the weird world that envelops Curtida, herself a notable improvement over your average White guy gumshoe. As the conspiracy involving a radicalized scientist named Priscilla Kim, guerrilla fighters dubbed the People's Pigment Movement, and a prototypically evil biopharma corporation unravels, this thriller ironically loses the plot from time to time, but given the phantasmagoric playground grounded in very real, painful emotions, readers are likely to enjoy the ride just fine. A heady, deep-dyed debut that suggests more thought-provoking work to come.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2023
The world changed with the Falklands War. Instead of being an event most Americans probably haven't heard of, it transformed North America. In this alternate history, Argentina weaponized emotion during the war, becoming a dominant power in the world. But this is just the fascinating backdrop to the plot here. After the war, the U.S government started trying to control the color-coded emotions, including the distribution of existing concoctions and the creation of new ones. Enter Psychopigment Enforcement Agent Kay Curtida, who is pulled into a murder investigation that looks to be related to pigment. This is the case that will push Kay in both her career and personal life. Kay has a complicated history of pigment, and the case will force her to confront her past. The blend of mystery, sf, and alternative history works well to create a completely new and fascinating read. Telling the tale in the mode of noir with naturally subtle world building pulls the reader right into the setting of the story.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2022

DEBUT In this alternate-history noir mystery, the United States is no longer a dominant world power after Argentina won the Falklands War in 1982 by weaponizing emotion with chemicals. Detective Kay Curtida is near retirement and stuck in a dead-end town in an equally dead-end job, chasing down a case that might just vault her into the big time--or might get her killed. Curtida and her crew think they're investigating a new distributor selling bad batches of counterfeit psychotropic drugs, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. VERDICT This science-fictional noir will appeal to readers who have fallen hard for the upswing in blended SF/mysteries such as John Scalzi's "Lock In" and "Dispatcher" series. The blend brings a new twist to both parts of its equation, with the mystery and all its delicious red herrings set in a world not quite like the present. Curtida fits right into the mold of the noir detective while giving Sam Spade and company an entirely different perspective as a neuro-atypical Latinx protagonist. Highly recommended.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.