The Mexico Run

by Lionel White

Genres: Crime

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1974

About the author

Lionel White was a crime reporter who wrote around 38 suspenseful thrillers beginning with The Snatchers in 1953 and ending with The Walled Yard in 1978.

Most of his books were translated into a number of different languages and his earlier novels were published as Gold Medal pulp hard-boiled crime fiction, but when Duttons began a line of mystery and suspense books, he also wrote for them.

He was most well known for what a New York Times review described as "the master of the big caper."

A number of his books were made into movies and Stanley Kubrick liked his book 'Clean Break' (1955) so much that he licensed the rights for his film "The Killing" in 1956.

In Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs", Lionel White is listed as an inspiration for the film in the credits.

Gerry Wolstenholme
May 2011

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lionel White’s 1974 novel, The Mexico Run, was published towards the end of White’s career. It features a Vietnam veteran, Mark Johns, who has returned back to the States with dreams of making a bundle of cash through a couple of runs down to Mexico to get some Acapulco Gold and sell it to a distributor in San Francisco. He figures it’s easy money and any amateur can make it big. However, he soon finds its more Midnight Express and less Cheech and Chong. Indeed, Johns soon finds himself plunging down the well into the concentric circles of hell. He’s climbed onboard the express train to despair and there’s no way off.

Johns has his scheme all worked out. He’s got a name he will use as an introduction, a fast car, the ability to talk anyone into chartering him a boat, and an old friend he hasn’t seen in fifteen years who can lend a hand. What he forgets is he’s one guy and he’s all on his own with no backup. And he’s headed for a wild ride of corruption and arm twisting and dealing with people who will take everything dear to him and break it apart just to prove they are the boss.

Indeed, his only partner is a young girl who he rescued from a border motel where she was being kept and abused. Now he can’t get rid of her and the corrupt officials in Ensenada are going to use her to get to him. Mostly she’s there for comic relief, an innocent who doesn’t get that the world is filled with evil.

This novel works really well because White really captures Johns’ narrative voice, his confidence, and his shock and surprise when he finds he has become little more than a marionette being played by others and he’s got himself and everyone he cares about in a mess of trouble.

[WJEP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Johns is a dope smuggler with a heart of pyrite. The trouble starts when he recklessly rescues a bordertown bimbette. He should have been watching his own ass. Johns learns the hard way that pot is not only a gateway drug for users, but also for smugglers. Johns is a complete horse’s ass who thinks he's got it all figured out

"You seem very sure of yourself, señor."

The writing was frictionless despite the twisty plot. Lionel White tricked me with his final twists. But I think Johns deserved a little more suffering.

[Taju Noor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read and way better than Hostage for a Hood

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining through the first 80%, but the ending is remarkably stupid.