Introduction
Headline stories of foreign prisons is nothing short of breathtaking to Americans who in travels have heard horror tales of how it feels to be suddenly thrown behind bars and declared guilty of a crime without the right to counsel. In Greece, one is guilty until proven innocent; in Turkey, the firing squad takes care of it, and in Russia, the no-man's land of Siberia is just punishment... and in Mexico you get on your knees and beg, money in hand. Sometimes its easier when you're female, blonde and very pretty.
Ask Helga Anderson, heroine of Edward Mitchell's explosive novel Prisoner in Mexico, and she'll tell you how it feels to come fresh from the wheat fields of North Dakota to Mexico on a semester break from college and suddenly be pounced upon by the Aduana and dragged off to a filthy prison. If the physical discomforts of substandard conditions aren't enough to scorch the nerves, the psychological impact of threat is: "Perhaps after a few months of fighting off lesbians and cockroaches, the Señorita will change her mind and decide to cooperate...?"
How does a woman with no legal counsel and no money free herself? Some readers might disapprove of Helga's sensual approach to freedom and, more staunchly still, to her unexpected reaction at seeing her cellmate flogged and sexually attacked, left naked and bleeding. For Prisoner in Mexico is about masochism... about that little lascivious spark in all of us, that dark desire called helplessness, capable of wiping out all guilt and emotion. Some reader may be aghast at this moral turpitude under captive conditions, but then, we don't know, do we... until we try for ourselves?
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