Un estrangulador de mujeres anda suelto por la Ciudad de México. Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, ingeniero autojubilado y reconvertido en singular detective independiente, se lanza a una de las más extrañas cacerías que se hayan conocido para detener al asesino. Las únicas pistas para descifrar estos crímenes son las notas que aparecen en los cadáveres firmadas bajo el seudónimo de «Cerevro». Con esta novela se inicia la serie de aventuras del detective Belascoarán Shayne, un investigador ya clásico en la nueva literatura policiaca mexicana.

Set amidst the political turbulence and social unrest of contemporary Mexico City, An Easy Thing introduces English-speaking readers to Taibo's human and world-weary protagonist, independent detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne. In this debut outing, our hero, who, incidentally, possesses an insatiable appetite for Coca Cola and cigarettes, tackles three cases simultaneously: a killing in a corrupt factory; the deadly threats against a former porn starlet's teenage daughter; and, strangely, the search for Emiliano Zapata, folk hero and leader of the Mexican Revolution, rumored to be alive and hiding out in a cave outside Mexico City. Combining black comedy, social history and a touch of surrealism, Paco Taibo's wonderfully idiosyncratic detective novels are admired the world over and are particularly popular in Europe and in the Spanish-speaking world.

Mexico City detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne is summoned home from vacation by his sister, whose childhood friend Anita has been raped and nearly killed by unknown assailants. Héctor discovers that Anita, recently married into the wealthy Costa family, has just seen her husband and his two brothers systematically murdered. Now, if she can stay alive long enough to receive it, Anita stands in line to receive a legacy of some 200 million pesos. During his investigation, Héctor trades stories with a novelist who is writing a crime novel based upon the recent murder of fourteen narcotraficantes and has traced the crime directly back to Judicial Police Commander Saavedra. How can a detective operate in a society in which the social and political institutions designed to protect the people are hopelessly corrupt?

The third English language case for Mexico City independent detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne, No Happy Ending, is Paco Ignacio Taibo II at his subversive, darkly comic best. First, Hector discovers the body of a dead actor, dressed like a Roman in full breastplate and regalia, propped up on the toilet in his office. Shortly thereafter, he receives a threatening letter and a snapshot of another murdered corpse. As Hector investigates the killings, he discovers that both share a connection to a dead stuntman named Zorak who apparently perished while training a government-backed paramilitary group. Once again, the one-eyed anarchist detective finds himself up against the very institutions which persecute the downtrodden and oppress the masses. In typical Taibo fashion, Hector appears destined to lose: the ending to this remarkable absurdist tale shows his bullet-ridden body lying face down in the gutter during a rainstorm.

"How do we coexist without rotting in sadness?" asks private detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne of his beleaguered and beloved Mexico. Not your typical PI, Shayne is prone to bouts of existential crisis. But that doesn't stop him from trying to solve the murder of a Cuban rhumba dancer's wife. Nor does it protect him from a fusillade of bullets fired by a Mariachi band, or from an entanglement with the C.I.A. while in Mexico investigating the woman's death. Paco Ignacio Taibo killed off Shayne in No Happy Ending,but he has resurrected the one-eyed sleuth for Return to the Same City. How? Who knows? A deep thinker and a darkly humorous character, Shayne is the perfect companion for a literary visit to the spiritual side of Mexico.' to 'Hector Belascoaran Shayne retorna en esta novela vertiginosa, alucinante y sorprendente, en la que la magia del DF, los miedos del protagonista y los recientes conflictos sociales, se mezclan con la extrana historia de un agente de la CIA. esta, la quinta novela de la serie Belascoaran, no solo significa el retorno de uno de los personajes mas entranables y solidarios, sino tambien el regreso, sin ningun tipo de concesiones, de una forma de ver y entender a la ciudad mas grande del mundo y probablemente una de las mas corruptas: Mexico, DF.' original\_title: 'regreso a la misma ciudad y bajo la lluvia'

Un viejo campeón de lucha libre aparece asesinado. Una parejita de adolescentes se une en un pacto suicida. Dos enigmas que un detective tuerto, duro e inolvidable intentará resolver. Paco Ignacio Taibo II, el más conocido de los escritores policiales mexicanos, anuda en esta novela la violencia y la melancolía.

The sweetheart of Héctor Balascorán Shayne’s adolescence-the same one who has become a famous Mexican movie star-has disappeared into the magical reality of the U.S./Mexico Border. Her daughter hires the detective to find her and bring her home. He wanders la frontera, traveling the empty roads between Tijuana and Mexicali and Juárez. Between nostalgia and reality. He falls in and out of love, he talks with the ghost of Pancho Villa, he asks lonely questions about the dirty business of narcotraficantes, and he listens closely to the story of the whores of Zacatecas. They, like his sweetheart, seem to have disappeared forever, their absence creating chaos back home. Balascorán Shayne, who at heart is an anarchist and incurable romantic, answers his own questions with two sticks of dynamite. Only then can he say goodbye to the beloved of his youth. The Héctor Balascorán Shayne detective series are best sellers in Mexico, Latin America and Europe. In the U.S., Belascorán Shayne has a rabid and growing clan of aficionados, but to insure that the popularity of the series continues to grow, editor Bobby Byrd and translator William Verner add an Afterword for Frontera Dreams. Their essay includes a biography of the detective, a brief synopsis of the novels to date and an artist’s sketch of him. The drawing portrays all the scars on his bullet-riddled body and details in which novel Paco Ignacio Taibo II inflicted these myriad wounds on his beleaguered hero.

El dirigente magisterial Medrano Rivera es detenido por asesinar a un tal Lupe Bárcenas. La acusación dice que un 6 de diciembre, en un pueblo perdido del suroeste de México, con una .38 que sacó de abajo del chaleco y al pie de una rueda de la fortuna, le despachó un par de balazos. Pero ese 6 de diciembre Rivera estaba a ochenta kilómetros del lugar de los hechos; ese día no había ninguna rueda de la fortuna en San Andrés; él jamás ha tenido un chaleco y, para acabarla, el muerto sin duda no está muerto, porque acaba de ser visto emborrachándose con policías y caciques. Y claro, Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, desconcertado detective independiente, es contratado para encontrar al supuesto difunto.

¿De veras tenía que irse Belascoarán a Madrid a rescatar el pectoral de Moctezuma robado por la ex amante ranchera de un ex presidente? ¿No iba a moverse entre dos nostalgias paralelas? Con Adiós, Madrid, última novela de la serie Belascoarán, concluye la saga del detective mexicano más conocido en México y en el mundo. Las nueve novelas publicadas en esta serie son: Días de combate, Cosa fácil, Algunas nubes, No habrá final feliz, Regreso a la misma ciudad y bajo la lluvia, Amorosos fantasmas, Sueños de frontera, Desvanecidos difuntos y Adiós, Madrid.