The Silver Cloud Cafe

Fans of the deadpan darkness of Raymond Chandler who are also interested in the magic realism of Gabriel García M´rquez should enjoy this unusual but highly effective mixture of both styles by the author of La Maravilla. Born into a family of migrant workers in Arizona, Alfredo Véa Jr. was a soldier in Vietnam and put himself through law school by working at a series of grueling jobs. That background plays a part in this intriguing story set in the Hispanic underworld of San Francisco's Mission District, where two killings 40 years apart are linked by chains of blood and history.