When I came across this book, I picked it up, thinking it was a cute idea: a masked detective named X, who lives in a city of people whose identity lies in the masks they wear. I was pleasantly surprised to find out my "cute idea" thought was one of the biggest understatements my mind ever told me.
This is not just a great book focusing on pro wrestling (more specifically, Lucha Libre, the Mexican Style of Pro Wrestling), this is not just a great crime novel, this is not just just a great fantasy tale; this is a great novel that encompasses all these genres!
Christ Faust tells the story of Ms. X, a former luchadora (lady wrestler) who fell from grace in the professional Lucha Libre world, and now resides in Hoodtown, her old stomping grounds. Here she makes a modest living, still as a luchadora, but as a private luchadora, who dishes out hourly sessions to masochistic men who are thrilled to be smacked around by Ms. X.
Her new routine is interrupted when masked prostitutes in Hoodtown are found not only murdered, but left unmasked, which is every bit as horrible in itself as death. Ms. X becomes a self taught private eye searching for the killer since the police ---who do not reside in Hoodtown, and like most maskless people in this novel's society, spit upon masked folks as members of the lowest caste--- are nonchalant about finding the murderer.
Of all the great things I can say about this story, what floored me most is Christa Faust's ability to create a gritty but sexy heroine in Ms. X, and in quite a way that I've never seen before. X is no glamour girl, but a rubenesque middle-aged woman with aches & battle scars from her former professional life. Rather than turning her into a one-dimensional asexual gritty character, Faust's erotic segments brings out X's raw sexuality in a way the reader will find alluring. It seems like so much erotica is based on glamorous folk with lilywhite skin and flawless bods; Faust does an enviable job of taking a down-to-earth character with flaws, but still painting a sensual figure that will make any man wish that X was a real life woman they could meet in the flesh. For fans of Japanese Womens' wrestling, picture Bull Nakano as a detective!{Sigh!}
This is also the best novel I have ever read that is based on professional wrestling. I have read one or two decent wrestling novels, a few mind-numbingly horrid wrestling novels, but this is the first great pro wrestling novel I have encountered.
