Think back 250 years. A man has been tied up, a human bundle inside a soaked cow skin. Swinging from a gibbet in a Mexican courtyard, the skin shrink-dries slowly. An elegant woman watches as, over a week, the skin crushes him to death.
Think of the present. A plane lands in Mexico City on an unusually clear evening. A criminologist whose Mexican friends call Jorge, his new wife Rissa and her daughter Kiki disembark for a two week honeymoon. On the side, acting for International PEN, he's been asked to deliver a check to a lawyer for the defence of an imprisoned novelist-priest.
Cutting between the 1750s and the present, The Condesa of M. explores Mexico's dark religious underworld. The story interweaves historical betrayal, modern-day justice and the search for shrouded truths.
"Szanto's writing is fluid and filled with expression, and there is no lack of action. Lovers entwine, wives are beaten, babies are born, a man is tortured, and there's even a kidnapping, yet exposing these plot points doesn't begin to give the stories away....This novel is ultimately satisfying while leaving some questions tantalizingly unanswered." —Times-Colonist