Mayra Santos-Febres Any Wednesday I’m Yours

Any Wednesday I'm Yours

Mayra Santos-Febres

Riverhead, Jul 2005, $14.00, 320 pp.

ISBN: 159448001X

Julian Castrodad works as the overnight proof reader at the newspaper La Noticia until a rival cuts into their circulation and he is downsized. His friend Tadeo Chamdelau obtains Julian a job working graveyard along side him at the Motel Tulan where most patrons pay an hourly rate.

Julian keeps a journal of the activities he witnesses that run the gamut of San Juan society especially that of the repeat customers. He is very interested though he learns to use his "peripheral vision" to not be caught observing the antics of labor attorney Efrain Soreno with union VIPs as they make a deal over development of Parallel 37. Almost as interesting is the antics of drug lord Chino Pereira who uses Tadeo as a cheap "messenger". However, the one that hooks Julian eventually indirectly costs him his live-in girlfriend Daphne.

ANY WEDNESDAY I'M YOURS is a gripping Caribbean urban noir that hooks the audience with its fascinating look at transient life at a seedy motel before spinning into more typical homicidal waters. Much of the intriguing storyline centers on the goings-on at the motel through the eyes of Julian. As such, thriller fans will find the pace perhaps a bit slow, but readers who treasure a shadowy atmospheric insightful suspense tale will cherish this deep look at "losers" spending the dark morning hours in various states of hiding.

Harriet Klausner