A book that came highly recommended and it started off really well, a dead businessman with a dark secret, police more crooked than the criminals they're trying to protect and a whole series of femme fatales. The narrator, Carlito, guides us through the dark streets and vice and corruption of the seediest sides of Mexico City, but the reader is never sure whether what Carlito is telling us is true or not. This works well at the start of the book, he gives us his opinions on everything which I feel should sometimes be taken very much with a pinch of salt and it helps to add an atmosphere of uncertainty and distrust to the whole story as Carlito soon finds himself knee deep in not only investigating a death but also assassinated prostitutes, crooked politicians and a maze of gang wars.
However towards the end it only made things very confusing for me with one imagined dream sequence while in a coma (because of concussion from a "shootout at the ranch") to another. I was not entirely sure what was happening, which means it is only 3 stars from me, I would recommend this book but I hope the next reader can understand the ending better than me. ( )