Mexico, Margaritas, and Murder
Lots of folks go a little loco in Puerto Vallarta, land of sun, sand, tequila, and (if you?re a lucky woman in need of some self-esteem building), a one-night stand with a handsome, dangerous man.
Michelle Mason is that lucky woman. A new widow left disillusioned and penniless by her rat of a husband, she?s having one last fling on a vacation that had already been paid for before the SOB died and left her world in chaos. Or what she thought of as ?chaos?, because she?s about to learn the REAL meaning of that word.
An accidental switch of cell phones with handsome ex-pat Daniel and suddenly Michelle is seeing the darker side of this vacation paradise. The side with quasi-official government men with guns, drug cartels, Mexican jails, bodies piling up around her, and secrets that can turn her into one of those dead bodies. Where do you turn when your passport has been confiscated, your family has been threatened, you?ve been thrown into jail, and the only man you can remotely trust is the one who got you into this in the first place?
I?ve been waiting anxiously for Ms. Brackmann?s newest book, after being so blown away by her debut, Rock Paper Tiger. GETAWAY is every bit as intense, real, and thrilling. Her real talent is in so realistically portraying a setting and then dropping a character that might just be you or me into this place. Then she twists the kaleidoscope and changes everything. She writes beautifully about the loveliness of a place, then unflinchingly turns over the rocks and shows us the horror that lies beneath. In this book, Michelle visits the dump in Puerto Vallarta (note: I believe this place is now closed and folks can no longer go there, but while writing the book, Ms. Brackmann visited the place. The sounds, the sites, the gut-wrenching odors, and the horror of children living in the squalor she writes so eloquently about are real).
My stomach churned as I followed the heroine into this nightmare. I kept asking myself what I?an ordinary middle class woman like Michelle?would do. I?d have been just as lost and horrified as Michelle. And I would hope that?like Michelle?I?d find the inner strength and gut instinct to claw my way out of the morass and survive.
In my review of her debut novel I called Ms. Brackmann ?fierce?. She continues to prove me right.
