“A real-pager turner…Ernesto Sánchez is truly an original!…A riveting mystery and timely story about navigating life as a gender nonconforming individual.” Heather Duerre Human, author of Gender Bending Detective Fiction: A Critical Analysis of Selected Works.

“Evocative and compelling, ratcheting up the tension as it went along, and livened by some humour…Gritty and dark and with a classic hard-boiled detective story set in a morally corrupt world with a deeply conflicted protagonist (with a contemporary angle) — in other words a great summer beach read.” Cape Breton Post.

“Mezcalero is a remarkable read, with sustained suspense, surprise explosions of poetry and violence, and some new answers to old questions. Wilson understands something about violence and gender that I have never encountered before: that women’s violence is perhaps the most feared. Sanchez’s womanly violence in his manly body is a mystery revealed, a truth told that we suspected all along. This is a profoundly feminist book. The women in the book are the power brokers, the activators of action; even the most oppressed empleada is a container of her own complete power. Mezcalero is deftly plotted, and deploys an acrobatic narrative that is, frankly, exhilarating. Sanchez has a lot to teach us. Wilson, too.” Janette Platana, author of A Token of My Affliction (2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize nominee; 2016 English Language Trilium Book Award finalist).

“T.E. Wilson’s Mezcalero is, as a novel, a tacit consequence of the author’s real-world work as a reporter/journalist in Mexico. His work is rich in essence, and rich in detail, of how widespread organized crime and corruption permeate Mexican society.  Highly recommended. This is great, well-grounded fiction.” Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics, Columbia University, and President of the Citizens’ Action Institute (Instituto de Acción Ciudadana).

“T.E. Wilson has crafted a terrific, terrifying and yet sensationally witty portrait of modern Mexico. Detective Sánchez is irresistible. You won’t soon forget his journey through that unpredictable jungle that is Mexico today.” León Krauze, Mexican journalist, author and news anchor.

Banner photograph by Matt Mawson.