In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) is no ordinary murder mystery. That’s because it’s a true story.

Author Katherine Corcoran, a former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America, weaves a tale that is almost unbelievable. Sadly, though, it is all too real.

While the book is centered on one journalist in particular—Regina Martinez—it’s more encompassing than just her murder. She was beaten and strangled in her home.

Corcoran delves into the corruption in Mexico’s government at all levels, the horrific number of journalists who have been killed there, and the other lives that have needlessly been snuffed out.

Martinez wasn’t afraid to write the hard hitting stories, to name names, to tell the truth, to not be bought off.

From 2017-24 90 journalists were murdered in Mexico, according to Statista. Seven of them occurred last year, with the highest number—19—in this eight-year span coming in 2022.

Martinez was murdered in 2012. Clearly, the killings have been going on for way too many years.

Obviously I have a personal interest in the subject matter as a journalist and someone who loves Mexico. Still, I think almost everyone would find this book gripping, eye-opening and alarming.

I suppose in some ways it resonated with me even more with all the chaos that is going on with the U.S. government and the media.

Government corruption comes in many forms. Silencing of the media doesn’t have to mean killing someone.

Mexico and the United States can and should be doing better. Both are democracies. But without journalists able to tell the truth all democracies are going to crumble.

Read the book. It’s really good.

Big thanks to Sue for gifting me the book; not sure I would have come across it otherwise.