Crimetime

In Maria Fres-Felix’s city, life is hard, unidentified corpses are found with alarming regularity, and “pearls are tears.” But its most concerned citizen, SJ Tuason, makes for a charismatic inspector, and many of the city’s victims—an ex-pyramid scam artist, a Queen Amidala cosplayer, and a young matinee idol, to name a few—are as unforgettable as the human landscape she explores. Crimetime is breathtaking urban fear and fun, and we are all captive citizens.” Angelo R. Lacuesta Editor-at-Large, Esquire Philippines Winner of several National Book Awards Maria L.M. Fres-Felix’s Crimetime is everything a crime thriller should be: fast-paced, baffling, enigmatic. Yet she offers more by way of mystery using time-tested techniques in storytelling. The language is austere, clear-cut, yet no less admirable in that it grabs the reader by the hair and drags the same right into the very thick and center of a secret that is slowly unfolding. Even at the very start, the reader has no choice but to consent to being a live audience. She is definitely at home with the literary noir genre. Joel Pablo Salud Editor-in-Chief, Philippines Graphic and author of The Distance of Rhymes and Other Tragedies