Book Review: "Shakedown" by Erica Fuentes

Title: Shakedown

Author: Erica Fuentes

Publisher: Casablanca Publishing

ISBN, PUB Date: 978-607-8125-00-5, January 10, 2011

Reviewed by: Dani Alexis Ryskamp for Author Exposure

A tantalizing publisher's note prefaces the first English-language edition of Shakedown: “[the] original Spanish First Edition (Las Chicas de Palacio) was mysteriously and abruptly discontinued despite ranking among the top 10 best-selling books in Mexico.” A clever ploy to draw in readers? Or was the book a bit too true-to-life for someone's liking?

Shakedown takes place in a world of absolute power and near-absolute corruption. The bulk of its plot takes place during the late-1980s discussions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the ongoing power play among nations managing the world's increasingly scarce oil supplies.

The book sports many of the elements of a classic, even cliché, thriller, and because of this it could easily have become a parody of itself were it not for the surprisingly clear-eyed view through the eyes of its four main characters. The primary speaker among the four, Carolina, is an interpreter and protocol officer serving the Mexican government. Her position requires her careful attention to even the most closely-guarded negotiations among world leaders, and Carolina uses what she learns to untangle the puppet strings of power.

Throughout the novel, Carolina's well-grounded observations save the power brokers from becoming caricatures. She notes, for example, that although the presidents of both the United States and Mexico are given the utmost deference and protection, this same attempt to shield them from danger also insulates them from the real concerns their citizens and nations face. In a sense, these men are almost too public to be in charge: they may pull some strings, but their own strings are pulled in turn.

Carolina, however, would have nothing but a pile of facts were it not for her three best friends, Susana, Lorena, and Tanya. Together, the four women declare themselves las chicas de palacio, “the girls of the palace,” weaving the strings of power Carolina uncovers into a ladder that lets them all climb, in turn, to the highest echelons of power in the Mexican government.

Despite its take-no-prisoners attitude, however, Shakedown is as much a book about friendship and loyalty as it is about power and corruption. Throughout the book, Carolina, Susana, Lorena, and Tanya rely primarily on one another. Rather than playing the power game at the expense of one another, the four women play it for one another's benefit and for the benefit of their beloved Mexico.

Shakedown incorporates the standard thriller, but it is not a standard thriller. Unlike most thrillers, which abandon any hope of the protagonist having any kind of positive relationship with another human being, Shakedown relies on the ongoing friendship among its four main characters to build its main point: that power, even absolute power, need not corrupt absolutely as long as the powerful have the foresight to work for the greater good and the support of level-headed friends. Shakedown's main characters believe in one another, which makes the reader believe in them as well.