Review of Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage (Soho Crime, 2009)

In a remnant of rain forest on the outskirts of Sao Paulo a clandestine cemetery is discovered.  Despite his boss being more interested in the investigation of a political rival, Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Federal Police travels from Brasilia to investigate further.  The bodies have not been long buried and are interred in family groups. Silva enlists the help of local cop, Delegado Yoshiro Tanaka.  Tanaka soon discovers the recent disappearance of a local family.  Following their trail leads to Tanaka straight to the source of the bodies and his own death.  Silva and his team struggle to pick up the trail once again, but when they do it uncovers a dark secret and other cemeteries.

Buried Strangers is an engaging read.  Gage writes in an assured, economical style heavy on dialogue and action.  The political, social and economic relations of modern Brazil are laid bare without overly dominating the text; there’s plenty of context without it being a geography/history lesson.  The characterization is good, with Gage able to quickly sketch a portrait that appears in the reader’s mind’s eye.  The storyline for Buried Strangers is contemporary and interesting, if more than a little unsettling.  The pages just fly past.  That said, the book suffers from too many awkward plot devices.  For example, moving a pair of witnesses hundreds of miles away to where they were uncontactable, a mother living next door to her son, Silva’s cleaner’s son using an underground emigration network in a city hundreds of miles away.  There’s coincidence and then there’s plot device coincidence.  There’s 200 million people in Brazil and it’s a massive country, the chances of Silva’s cleaner’s son having anything to do with the case must be astronomical.  I don’t mind having to suspend disbelief every now and then, but I like it to be near-credible disbelief.  Moreover, the ending unfolded in a very quick, straightforward fashion, with no twists or turns, though there was some tension.  Overall, an enjoyable read, which could have been great if it hadn’t been reliant on obvious plot devices.  The next book in the series is Dying Gasp and it's on my to read list.

Review of Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage (Soho Press, 2008)

The Bishop of Presidente Vargas has flown in a corporate helicopter to the city of Cascatas, in the Brazilian interior, in order to open a new church. On landing he is assassinated by sniper fire. It is one of a number of murders that have happened in Cascatas in recent months, mostly the result of a dispute between the peasants of the Landless League and large landowners who dominate the local economy and wield power over the police and judiciary. In addition, street kids are being found dead on a regular basis. The death of bishop, however, brings Cascatas to the attention of government ministers and the federal police. Chief Inspector Mario Silva, a man driven by the need to deliver justice but prepared to twist the law to achieve it, is dispatched to the city. There he is met with resistance by the local state police as he tries to uncover the murderer, but as he picks away at the case, others start to turn up dead, killed by a brutal hand.

Blood of the Wicked is a crime novel meets social commentary, examining the nature of policing, justice, access to land and a livelihoods, street kids, liberation theology, and massive inequalities in wealth and power in Brazil. It would have been easy for Gage to drift into writing little more than a sermon on corruption and the injustices suffered by the peasant class in country, but he manages to keep the story of the investigation centre stage, with the social commentary drifting out through its telling. And it is a powerful tale, well told. The plotting is, for the most part, excellent, though I did feel the plot line with the journalist was closed off when it could have profitably been kept open and the deaths of several people with powerful connections would have meant the city being flooded with dozens of federal cops, not just Silva and two colleagues. But these are minor gripes. The characterization is strong across a range of characters, not just the principles, and Silva is a detective worth spending time with. Where the book excels is in its evocation of place and its social history and commentary. If you like your fiction to inform and educate as well entertain, then Blood of the Wicked is well worth a read.