What do You think about An Easy Thing (2002)?
In a novel first published in 1977, half-Irish, half-Basque investigator Héctor Belascoarán Shayne gets presented with an intriguing premise: that Mexican Revolutionary icon Emiliano Zapata did not die at the Hacienda de San Juan in Chinamarca in 1919, but had instead cheated death when an emissary had gone instead. According to the tale Belascoarán is spun, Zapata, now in his 90s, remains very much alive, hiding out in a cave on the outskirts of Mexico City. Who could resist searching for Zapata? Surely not Belascoarán! Belascoarán also investigates two more mysteries in An Easy Thing, the first novel in the five-book Belascoarán series: some odd bullying against the teenage daughter of a former porn star and the stabbing murder of an engineer in a factory in Santa Clara in the state of Mexico (the province with the same name as the country). The factory owner and his board openly admit that they'll be blaming the murder on the union, which will be going on strike any day; in a nod at the total corruption of the system, both the executives and Belascoarán have no doubt that the police will totally comply. However, the executives would like to know the real murderer, all the same. Taibo is better known for his 2004 novel 68 about the 1968 student movement and the Tlatelolco massacre in which federal troops murdered hundreds of student protestors and arrested a thousand more 10 days before the 1968 Olympic Games were to begin in Mexico City. Taibo embues An Easy Thing with the same criticisms of the corrupt relationship between Mexico's politicians and oligarchs
—Ivonne Rovira
Paco Ignacio Taibo II siempre ha sido uno de mis autores predilectos, cuando lei la primer novela de esta serie (dias de combate)lo hice con grandes expectativas sobre todo porque los antecedentes que tenia sobre los trabajos pasados del autor y la premisa de la serie de Belascoaran Shayne, y al principio no me defraudo pero al final de la primer novela senti que el final fue un poco apresurado y esto me decepciono un poco. Pero con Cosa Facil se reinvidico y nos entrego una novela que emociona de principio a fin, desarrolla de forma un poco mas profunda al protagonico y los personajes secundarios son mas constantes. Me gusto mucho y lo recomiendo se te gustan las novelas policiacas.
—Arturo Del Rosal
In which the half-radical/half-romantic Taibo wrestles with the idea that there could never be a "Mexican detective" and then perversely creates one: the unforgettable Hector Belascoarán Shayne, a bleeding-heart, often-bleeding, pepsi-swigging, sleep-avoiding, sad-sack with an unpronounceable half-Basque, half-Irish name. The "Easy Thing" in the title is a three-headed mystery that involves saving a sad Catholic school girl with a broken arm, solving the political murder of a gay engineer, and proving that Zapata is still alive. Y'know, typical pulp stuff. This is essential reading for those interested in experiencing Mexico City (even Mexico City of the late '70s)as an electrically alive place -- but also for anyone who believes in the idea of the detective as a universal conduit between the parts of life we love and the parts we'd rather ignore. Absolutely outstanding.
—Andy
