A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
by Katherine Corcoran
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2022
336 pages
Genre: True Crime
Publication Information
Former AP Mexico bureau chief Katherine Corcoran's pulsating investigation into the murder of a legendary woman journalist on the verge of exposing government corruption in Mexico.
Regina Martínez was no stranger to retaliation. A journalist out of Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Regina's stories for the magazine Proceso laid out the corruption and abuse underlying Mexican politics. She was barred from press conferences, and copies of Proceso often disappeared before they made the newsstands. In 2012, shortly after Proceso published an article on corruption and two Veracruz politicians, and the magazine went missing once again, she was bludgeoned to death in her bathroom. The message was clear: No journalist in Mexico was safe.
Katherine Corcoran, then leading the Associated Press coverage of Mexico, admired Regina Martínez's work. Troubled by the news of her death, Corcoran journeyed to Veracruz to find out what had happened. Regina hadn't even written the controversial article. But did she have something else that someone didn't want published? Once there, Katherine bonded with four of Regina's grief-stricken mentees, each desperate to prove who was to blame for the death of their friend. Together they battled cover-ups, narco-officials, red tape, and threats to sift through the mess of lies-and discover what got Regina killed.
A gripping look at reporters who dare to step on the deadly "third rail," where the state and organized crime have become indistinguishable, In the Mouth of the Wolf confronts how silencing the free press threatens basic protections and rule of law across the globe.
"Corcoran, the former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America, debuts with a searing look at the unsolved 2012 murder of Regina Martínez, an investigative reporter for the Mexican magazine Proceso...Corcoran's vivid account is based on hundreds of interviews she conducted in Mexico over seven years. Despite the lack of a satisfying resolution, this succeeds both as an homage to the heroic Martínez and as a gripping real-life whodunit." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A disturbing look at violence against journalists in Mexico through the lens of the murder of a veteran crime reporter…Readers will be transfixed by this alarming narrative, all the more timely as free speech, even in the U.S., is under attack yet again. A tenaciously researched work of investigative journalism." - Kirkus Reviews
"Captivating…[a] copiously detailed, compelling true-crime tale." - Booklist
"A powerful chronicle of the life, work, and murder of Regina Martinez…Corcoran trains a sharp investigative eye on the events leading up to the murder and the desperate cover-up that ensued." - CrimeReads
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katherine Corcoran is a former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America. She has been an Alicia Patterson fellow, the Hewlett Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow. At the AP, she led an award-winning team that broke major stories about cartel and state violence and abuse of authority in Mexico and Central America. Her columns about Mexican politics and press freedom have appeared in the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, and Univision Online, among other publications. She is currently codirector of Cronkite Noticias, the bilingual reporting program at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and of MasterLAB, an investigative editor training program in Mexico City.
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