December Heat Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

December Heat Book

There are few crime story recipes more overdone than that involving a suspect who, for some reason, can't recall whether he or she committed murder. Yet Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza brings considerable spice to this device in December Heat, his second novel featuring the bookish and independent Inspector Espinosa. Leaving a Rio de Janeiro restaurant one evening, retired cop Vieira Crisóstomo, too drunk to stay on his feet, is helped into his car by his prostitute girlfriend, Magali. In the process, he drops his wallet, which is promptly snatched up by a homeless boy. The next morning, Magali is found dead in her Copacabana apartment, naked, with a plastic bag over her head, and lashed to her bed by Vieira's belt. With liquor obscuring Vieira's memory of the previous night, yet every clue suggesting that he asphyxiated his lover, Espinosa tells the ex-officer, "the only reason I'm not arresting you is because I don't think you're stupid enough to accumulate so much evidence against yourself." But who else might have murdered Magali? And is there a link between that crime and subsequent homicides related to Vieira's missing wallet? Answering those questions will send Espinosa after drug traffickers and corrupt cops, lead to assaults on both him and Vieira, and leave the inspector vulnerable to seduction by Vieira's new mistress, Flor--a woman who boasts as many secrets as she does curves. The leisurely pace of Garcia-Roza's tale reflects that of its sultry coastal setting. His characters vary between the hedonistic and the indigent, but are drawn with unfailing sympathy. Particularly captivating are this novelist's portrayals of women; in one instance, Espinosa tells a young painter here that "you have a navel that proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that God exists and that he's a sculptor." Like The Silence of the Rain, Garcia-Roza's first installment of his Espinosa trilogy, December Heat is a coolly delivered blend of the ominous and the sensual, hinting at what Oscar Hijuelos or Gabriel García Márquez might accomplish, were they ever to try penning detective fiction. --J. Kingston PierceRead More

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  • Product Description

    "They start following the guy and find out there's always a kid tracking him, and sometimes a guy with red hair, and sometimes even a guy from the 12th Precinct..." Who is following whom, and why? When an ex-policeman loses his wallet and I.D. while out on the streets of Copacabana, a whole set of brutal murders is set into play. His lover, Magali, is found dead in her bedroom the next day, but Vieira can't remember a thing about their last night together. Almost immediately, the young, beautiful Flor, Magali's closest friend and fellow hooker, latches on to the ageing, incapacitated Vieira - there is something amiss...Police Inspector Espinosa, Vieira's friend and former colleague, is on the case. But when three more people are murdered, he realises he has been following all the wrong tracks. Someone from within the police force seems to be trying to implicate him along with his friend, ex-policeman, Vieira, and now those closest to them are under threat. Espinosa, sensitive and reflective is not the typical sleuth. Running beneath this compelling crime narrative is a story of loneliness - the street children of Rio struggle through their muted day to day existence and a lonely d

  • 0330490931
  • 9780330490931
  • Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
  • 17 October 2003
  • Picador
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 288
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