I've always liked Roger Corman's films and television series. It's something of a guilty pleasure, but at least it's one than I can admit to now that Roger Corman has been around long enough (95 years) to acquire a patina of respectability. Of course, it's easy to admit to liking his Poe-series films because they were so well done by anyone's standards, but it takes a measure of fortitude to admit liking Beast With a Million Eyes, It Conquered the World or ("gulp") Attack of the Crab Monsters. One thing I always liked about his films is that you often never really knew what was coming. A safe cracking job segues into a monster movie in Beast of Haunted Cave, a film about a bunch of primitive cave dwellers becomes a warning about the future in Teenage Caveman, and a tale of unrequited love takes on a botanical twist in Little Shop of Horrors. I really wanted to capture that sense of Corman's genre weaving, so I wrote Behind Thick Walls: An Apocalyptic Crime Novel.
It starts out as a gangster novel, focusing on a new recruit to the infamous Diablo Crime Cartel, run by Antonio Carrillo, known to one and all as El Jefe. This is a time of plague for the novel's characters, but nothing as mild as what we in the "real" world have suffered through. No, they have N1M1, otherwise known as Rot, a disease of unknown origin (unlike Covid) that results in the body falling apart, and I don't mean that metaphorically.
El Jefe has moved his base of operations to his Citadel in a remote section of Mexico and practices a strict, some might say brutal, regimen to keep Rot at bay. The Mexican government leave him alone now that they have more important fish to fry, so to speak, but the American Department of Justice still wants his head on a platter, also so to speak. Beyond the diplomatic problems of attacking another country (though Mexico is in no position to protest), the Citadel is very well protected against ground and air assaults. Unfortunately, the DOJ has been spectacularly unsuccessful in gathering intelligence about El Jefe's defenses. Yes, they could drop a bunker-buster on the Citadel, but they really want El Jefe in a supermax prison much more than they want a smoking crater in Mexico's sovereign soil.
Then comes a man from out of the the desert who claims to be a doctor and a scientist on the trail of the origin of Rot. But he also claims that Rot may "not be of this Earth," so he may just be a lunatic. Or a prophet. Times of plague bring about all sorts of manias and rabble rousers exhorting the masses, men who cry Doom and Damnation to a dying world. This might be helpful to El Jefe, or he might be a harmless kook. Or he might be a spy for the Americans.
Blending genres can be risky, even jarring to the reader. There is always the risk that the science fiction fan may be turned off by the crime and noir elements, that the crime and thriller fan may find the science fiction and dystopian aspects off putting, or that aficionados of dystopian fiction may not be enthused by the crime and SF tropes. But, I think there is probably a convergence of readers somewhere in that trio of genres, and maybe even a few Roger Corman fans.
The book is currently available as an e-book and print edition on Amazon, and as an e-book wherever digital books are sold. Thanks for your support,
