Silver Nitrate

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about a curse that haunts a legendary lost film – and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all-but-invisible to her best friend Tristan, a charming if faded soap opera star, even though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristan discovers his new neighbour is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he has a way to change their lives – even if his tales of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristan to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristan begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend . . .

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristan might find out that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies . . .

Paula L. Woods,
The Los Angeles Times RAVE
True to her method, she succeeds here by knowing when to follow the rules of genre storytelling and when to turn them upside down.

Jason Heller,
NPR RAVE
If this sprawling tangle of mythic and literary references seems a little esoteric, fear not. Silvia-Moreno’s soaring cosmic horror stays rooted in grit and feeling.


Rave
Matthew Jackson,
Paste
another instant classic from one of our best genre authors.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Imprint: Jo Fletcher Bks UK
Publication date: 16/07/2024