Lovable deplorables
Argentinian author delivers with colorful father/daughter crime team

We’ve got a book for Murder Ink this go-round that knocked my socks off. Published by what’s become the designated hitter of crime fiction in the U.S., the Soho Crime imprint of Soho Press, “My Favorite Scar” caught my attention, despite its muzzy title. Also, with its Jan. 23 release, it was the first title after the paucity of winter to fit perfectly into the Telegraph’s Feb. 1 issue.

This is a book by Nicolás Ferraro, of Buenos Aires, who while studying to become a graphic designer at the University of Buenos Aires, earned a living playing poker. He serendipitously landed a job as coordinator at the Center for Crime Fiction at Argentina’s National Library after getting hooked on a popular cops and bad guys video game, “Max Payne,” 

So far, we haven’t much to recommend Ferraro, a regular guy who didn’t seem at first blush to be destined for authorship. But he cobbled together a debut novel titled “Dogo” in 2016 that was a finalist for a prestigious South American literary award. Next came “Cruz,” his first book translated into English, which earned him a nomination for the Dashiell Hammett Award by the International Association of Crime Writers.

“My Favorite Scar” is a first-person account by a 15-year-old daughter who keeps her father patched up in one crummy motel room after another from bullet wounds, knife punctures and deadly beatings resulting from being a clumsy, clearly unqualified crook. 

Ámbar is the girl’s name. A mother is a distant memory. And she can’t remember staying in one rented trailer or motel room or attending school and having friends for more than a few months before hitting the road in the dark of night. 

There’s a real father/daughter relationship here. Victor Mondragón has a tattoo with Ámbar’s name entwined with roses (his favorite scar), and Ámbar has been a sidekick for so long, she can forge driver’s licenses, map getaway routes, has her own sawed-off shotgun, and, of course, is experienced in emergency-room triage and battlefield surgery.

After a hitman bumps off Victor’s best and only friend who puts Victor and Ámbar up when things get too hot, Victor and his timorous sidekick head off cross country to avenge the killing on a series of stolen cars. They know only that the killer has a snake tattooed on his forearm.

This is a wonderful coming-of-age story, ably written and delicately translated by Mallory Craig-Kuhn, of two lovable characters and a supporting cast of colorful deplorables. 

Ámbar just wants the violence, blood and rough living to end. She wants to be a teenager, go to parties and concerts and have giddy friends, maybe a boyfriend. But she loves her father and feels an obvious need to accompany him just one more time until he finally scores big. Or until she watches him die from too many bullet holes she can’t stop bleeding into a worn-out motel mattress. How this colorful story ends shall be left a secret.

Ask Maria’s Bookshop for your 15 % Murder Ink discount. Sell your Snowdown Follies ticket to buy this book, or ask the public library to borrow or buy the book for you. ?