Perpetual West by Mesha Maren

 

Alex and Elena grew up in West Virginia.  Elena's family had lived there for years but Alex was adopted as a baby by local residents who had gone to Mexico as missionaries.  They got close in college and married, sure that each had found their soulmate.  Restless, the couple came up with the plan to move to El Paso so that Alex could try to investigate his origins.

The two entered graduate programs in Texas.  Alex decided to write his thesis on lucha libra, the wrestling industry that so enchanted the population.  The wrestlers are idolized and are like rock stars.  Alex didn't expect to fall in love with Mateo and Elena has no idea that Alex has drifted from her and their relationship.

When Elena goes home for a week for a family issue, Alex takes the opportunity to spend the week in Mexico with Mateo.  But Mateo has his own issues.  He is caught up in a struggle within the industry and the drug cartel wants to move in and take the contracts of the top wrestlers.  Mateo and Alex are kidnapped and taken to the home of the cartel head.

When Elena returns, she begins to search for Alex.  She quickly learns how little of his life she knew and she thinks of all the secrets she had been hiding from him.  Did they know each other at all?  Was their marriage ever anymore than a convenience to propel them out of West Virginia?  As she travels through Mexico looking for him, Elena meets many people who help in their own ways but she has no success.

Mesha Maren has written one other novel, Sugar Run.  In this novel, she explores the loneliness we all carry and the difficulty in breaking down the barriers and letting others know our secrets.  The reader will feel the desperation and despair that Elena feels as she searches and Alex's terror as he contemplates where his secrets have brought him.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.