Lew Shiner is another of those writers I've been reading for a long time, ever since his early stories in Twilight Zone and Mike Shayne. He's always been good, no matter what genre he was writing in.Lew's a dancer, among other things, and he's traveled to Argentina to study tango. It was probably inevitable he'd use the dance as an integral part of a novel, and here it is.
Rob Cavenaugh is an American, recently separated from his wife, who's transferred to work in Argentina. He's just an ordinary unheroic guy, who happens to love tango. He meets a beautiful woman, also someone who loves tango, and they fall in for each other. Not surprisingly, it turns out that the woman has some dark secrets. They have to do with Argentina's Dirty War and the Disappeared. Soon enough, Rob finds himself being drawn into things that he's not prepared to deal with. Hardly anyone could be.
Dark Tango is a love story and a thriller, and when it really starts cooking, it's impossible to put down. I think I'd better issue a mild SPOILER ALERT right here. There's an extended section that deals with torture, and it's graphic and frightening. Sensitive sorts who pick up this book and get sucked in by the romance and the tango are likely to be shocked by the violence. Thus ends the mild SPOILER ALERT.
Not for the weak of heart, Dark Tangos is the real deal. And it's easy to obtain. If you don't want to spring for the hardback, that's okay with Lew. He gives his books away. You can get Dark Tangos and many others in .pdf format at the Fiction Liberation Front. As for me, I prefer books.
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