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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780452286542
ISBN number: 0452286549
Label: Plume
Manufacturer: Plume
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: May 31, 2005
Publishing house: Plume
Release Date: May 31, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 379348
Studio: Plume
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“John Le Carre meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez…Pérez-Reverte has a huge following…and it’s spreading.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s latest novel has him poised for true breakout bestsellerdom: The Queen of the South hit multiple bestseller lists and garnered stunning reviews, with raves describing it as his greatest achievement to date. An extraordinary novel, it captivated booksellers, critics and readers almost without exception.
The Queen of the South spans continents, from the dusty streets of Mexico to the sparkling waters off the coast of Morocco, to the Strait of Gibraltar and Spain. Set to the irresistible beat of outlaw ballads, this sweeping story encompasses sensuality and cruelty, love and betrayal, as its heroine’s story unfolds.
“A modern-day epic…bearing the unmistakable ring of authenticity and a slam-bang narrative sure to resonate with legions of appreciative readers…All the core elements, after all, are here: love, violence, betrayal and honor.”
—Los Angeles Times
“The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four …pale in comparison with Pérez-Reverte novels…Pérez-Reverte shines in some white-knuckles action sequences…but his greatest triumph is [his] heroine.”
—Time Out New York
“Pérez-Reverte’s literary thriller explodes with history, heartbreak [and] determination….An epic suspense story of heart and grit.”
—Entertainment Weekly (Editor’s Choice)
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Rated by buyers 
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I have previously read "The Flanders Panel", "The Seville Communion", and "The Club Dumas" by Perez-Reverte. If you've read the three of them, and you haven't read this, you are in for a surprise.
As I began this book, I was wondering what, precisely, it was supposed to be. It is very different from the three books mentioned above, and I very much enjoyed them. I was hoping for another book in that vein.
I didn't get one. What I got instead was a novel about drug trafficking in Mexico and in the Mediterranean. Well researched and interesting, the book never failed to have important details and to leave out the unimportant ones. The plot was good, and traveled the course that it should. The characters seemed like real people (which made sense when I got to the end and found out that it was based on a true story and about true people).
But, I am left with questions. What happened to Theresa Mendoza? What happened to Don Epifanio? Etc. Were the Cesar Guemes mentioned in the book and that the book was dedicated to the same person, really? And why does Arturo Perez-Reverte, who seems so literate and complex, enjoy corridos, which are so often given over to the celebration of violence and illegal behavior?
There were parts of the book that disappointed me, and a short dictionary of Mexican slang at the back would have been helpful (or more lengthy translations).
Overall, though, it was very well written and an enjoyable read. I thought that the characters were complex and real. And they were both. I thought that the plot was good, and it was real, too. And I think that the writing was done well. The questions left in my mind were what really detracted from the book.
Recommended for those who want something a little different from their average reads.
B-
Harkius
Rated by buyers 
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Perez-Reverte was a reporter and a good one, and we know he's a superb novelist. In this book describing the international drug trade however he's both. He writes as a reporter interviewing people - some real, some fictitious, some a bit of both - and as a novelist about the career of Teresa Mendoza Chavez who rose in a few short years from obscurity in Culiacan on the eastern shore of the Gulf of California to Queen of the South, the undisputed and deadly efficient head and sole owner of the organization which, based on the Costa Del Sol, controlled for several years the transportation of all illegal drugs (except heroin) in the eastern Mediterranean.
It's not a pretty book. Nor is Teresa a pretty character, no matter how youthful, no matter how beautiful. At the age of 22 when her lover, the dashing, devil-may-care King of the Short Runway is assassinated by other drug people while he's landing a cargo of cocaine on a short runway, she grieves a moment and flees, sure she's subsequent to be targeted. And she's right. She escapes to Spanish North Africa, however, and from there over the subsequent 12 years establishes her network, a network over which she has absolute life or death control. Particularly death - because once you're in the business violent death seems to be the usual way out of it; and she has no qualms about making those arrangements for those who betray her or who might betray her. That includes her handsome, patrician Spanish lawyer who is the father of the unborn child she is carrying in her womb as the book ends.
Nor is the books is particularly well written or well organized. I think Perez-Reverte decided to do a serious number on the drug trade and got caught up in reporting on it vs. writing a novel on it. It needs editing. Perez-Reverte gets carried away by the sight of his own words. And I wish - Oh, how I wish! - that Spanish obscenities and Spanish slang would either be translated or omitted. It's aggravating for those of us who rely on a translator to be faced with unknowable Spanish phrases on every page and in every conversation.
I was particularly disappointed in the way Perez-Reverte handled the character of Teresa. After the death of her dashing aviator she seems to have annealed over her feelings with some kind of mental metal which not only prevented these human emotions - these feelings which we all have - from leaking out and which also prevented us from seeing them. She was a zombie with respect to love. She was a character needing redemption in the worst way, one who needed to regret, to come alive, to deal with a future - something she was certainly able to do. But Perez-Reverte denied all this to her, denied her redemption and left us at the end of the book watching her walk out the door of a government safe house in Culiacan midst gunfire and violence, walk out rich, famous completely alone and pregnant and walk out into her future, whatever it might be, leaving us to guess about it.
In short every story like this needs resolution, needs an ending, needs an emotional catharsis so we can put the book down and say either it was a good book or it didn't do the job and know why we say it. But I couldn't do this with this one. I was disappointed, left in the air at the end, wanting to know what happens or happened next. Here it was that the novelist failed; here it was that the reporter simply wrote finis.
Rated by buyers -
I enjoyed this book, despite not wanting to read it originally as part of our book group. It was a bit slow at times but I couldn't wait to get to the end to see what happens to the protagonist!
Rated by buyers 
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If you can plod through the very first half, the second half gets much better. After we meet Theresa Mendoza preparing to run for her life after the killing of her drug-runner boyfriend, the story continues as we follow her flight from Mexico to Southern Spain, new drug-runner boyfriend, prison time, etc. Finally, the second half improves as we see Theresa weave a complex web of corporate structures designed to cover her own drug transport business that would make any corporate tycoon proud. While there are some exciting moments, the story is mostly predictable and ends up an unsatisfying read. Put this at the bottom of the pile on your bedside table.
Rated by buyers -
This is the very first of Perez-Reverte's books that I have struggled to finish. The ham-handed interviewer slows the story down to a crawl every time he enters. And the story itself has none of the fascinating complications and turns that make the author's other novels (Club Dumas, Flanders Panel) so fascinating. No queen, just a lady in waiting. Disappointing.
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