Onyx reviews: The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

Reviewed by Bev Vincent, 9/17/2022

Mario is an angry man, with good reason. Although he and his family lived paycheck-to-paycheck, they were staying afloat most of the time. Then tragedy strikes—his four-year-old daughter is diagnosed with leukemia and dies despite experimental (i.e., expensive) treatment. He loses his job at an insurance company because of too many absences and he's on the hook for hospital bills he can't imagine ever paying off.

Desperate, he does the unthinkable: when his Brian (who happens to be a meth-head) offers to pay him $6000 to commit a murder for hire, he agrees. To his amazement, he discovers he's a good hitman. Brian assures him the people he's killing are bad (and something Mario sees after his first kill supports that), so he's able to rationalize taking the lives of strangers. Though the jobs are lucrative, the compensation is a drop in the bucket compared to what he owes. Financial stress, fueled by Mario's willful embrace of violence, destroys his marriage.

Then Brian hooks him up with Juanca, who offers a job that will free him of debt and maybe put him in a position where he can get his wife back. At least the persistent dunning phone calls will stop. Juanca, who has past experience with the cartels, knows about a truck full of drug money bound for Mexico. If they can rip it off, they'll be golden, although they'll need to disappear. Completely. The cartel will never stop looking for the people who stole from them. It seems like a shaky deal, especially since Brian decides to go cold turkey the day before they set out for the border. The money, though, is too big a temptation. It's the ultimate "final job" scenario, which, in this genre of novels and movies, never goes according to plan.

However, this isn't a straight heist thriller. According to the book's title page, this is in the unique genre of "barrio noir." Iglesias intermixes languages, generally without providing a translation for people who don't speak Spanish. Readers will just have to keep up, although context and conversation often lend a hand in that department. The effect can be disorienting, a sensation shared by Brian, who often finds himself surrounded by people speaking only Spanish.

Also, Iglesias digs deep into Hispanic supernatural lore, which means that seers' predictions (and waking visions that have haunted Mario all his life) can come true, terrifying creatures lurk in the shadows of cross-border drug tunnels, occult magic exists and dying isn't necessarily the end.

Dealing with criminals, though, is hazardous enough without these supernatural elements. The take will be split three ways, but Mario senses that at least one of his co-conspirators thinks a two-way split would be even better, which means he always has to stay a step ahead of Brian and Juanca, either of whom could turn on him in a flash. Not to mention the drug lord he ends up meeting, who is as scary as any creature resurrected by a mystical potion. (He keeps a pool filled with crocodiles at his house, all the easier to dispose of people who disappoint or cross him.) The book has violence galore, much of it described in unflinching and explicit detail.

Besides exploring the ruthless inner workings of Mexican cartels, and a desperate man's descent into violence, The Devil Takes You Home also takes an unflinching look at the relentless systematic racism people of color face in this country. It's all pretty grim, but Mario clings to a tenuous fiber of hope that, with enough money, he might be able to put his difficult life behind and create a new, better future for himself.