What is the name of the heroine in the 2020 novel 'Mexican Gothic'?

The heroine of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2020 novel “Mexican Gothic” is Noemí Taboada.

Noemí is a glamorous young socialite living in 1950s Mexico City. Her cousin Catalina writes to her from High Place, an isolated mansion in the mountains, claiming that her English husband, Virgil Doyle, intends to poison her. Noemí’s father sends her to investigate, placing her at the center of the novel’s Gothic mystery.

At High Place, Noemí encounters the controlling Doyle family, unsettling dreams, and a house that seems to exert influence over its inhabitants. She is intelligent, socially confident, and interested in anthropology, but she must also navigate colonial history, family power, and the dangers concealed beneath the mansion’s decaying grandeur.

The novel’s setting draws on real Mexican mining towns and the legacy of British colonial activity in Hidalgo. It was published on June 30, 2020, and combines traditional haunted-house elements with themes of exploitation, racism, patriarchy, and cultural identity. Catalina, Virgil, and Francis are important characters, but none is the protagonist.