The Black Jersey

A fast-paced mystery where Murder on the Orient Express meets the Tour de France--someone's killing off cyclists one by one.

There are riders willing to die just to win a single leg of the Tour, careening downhill at a suicidal ninety kilometers per hour; now I know there are also riders ready to kill for it.

Marc, a French-Colombian professional cyclist with a military past, is on an elite Tour de France team led by his best friend, Steve, an American star and a favorite to win this year's Tour. But the competition takes a dark turn when someone begins eliminating racers in a series of violent "accidents," and all the remaining athletes become suspects. Marc agrees to help the French police with their investigation from the inside, but as the days progress, the dangers grow, and the number of potential murderers--and potential winners--shrinks. In fact, if there's any team that has been favored by the murderer's actions, it's Marc and Steve's. Who can Marc trust? Who should he protect? As the finish line approaches, Marc must decide what he's willing to risk for justice, victory, and friendship.

Jorge Zepeda Patterson is a journalist, novelist, and political analyst. He has been the director of several Mexican newspapers and was the founder of Siglo 21, a groundbreaking publication throughout the nineties. He currently runs Sinembargo, a leader in Mexican news sites, and writes a weekly column that is published in sixteen different newspapers. His debut novel, The Corruptors, was a finalist for the Dashiell Hammett Prize, and his second novel, Milena, won the Planeta Prize. His novels are translated into more than ten languages.

Translator Achy Obejas is the author of The Tower of Antilles, which was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and The Story Prize, as well as four other books of critically acclaimed fiction. She edited and translated the anthology Havana Noir, and has translated the work of Rita Indiana, Wendy Guerra, and many others. In 2014, she was awarded a USA Ford Fellowship for her writing and translation. She currently serves as the director of the MFA in Translation program at Mills College in Oakland, California.