It is 1939 and a man dies in agony at the San Juan de Dios de Amatitlan Hospital outside Guatemala City. His wife and children are accused of poisoning him, shattering the calm of a land kept in fearful order by the authoritarian president Jorge Ubico. One of the few Central American novels to explore the region's criminal history, "On the Dark Side" is a captivating story of a murder and the ensuing judicial investigation that became known as "The Gourd Poisoning" in a society unprepared for a crime that lay outside its powers of reason. Salazar explores the bitterly unhappy circumstances that can make a woman kill, and the unforgiving quality of male justice. This is a compelling read that touches a raw Latin nerve.