L. A. García-Roza (1936–2020)

El recién ascendido comisario Espinosa debe enfrentarse a un peculiar misterio: Gabriel, un joven de treinta años, se presenta en su despacho para confesarse autor de un crimen que aún no ha cometido y cuyos detalles desconoce. El atípico, tímido y reflexivo detective intentará resolver este enigma mientras distintas personas próximas al entorno de Gabriel van muriendo de forma violenta. Río de Janeiro, con sus duros contrastes, su cálido ambiente tropical y sus zonas oscuras, se convierte en un espacio-personaje por el que deambulan los distintos actores de esta sugerente intriga policial que el autor construye con generosas dosis de energía narrativa y profundidad psicológica.… (mais)

Boring and mundane typify Inspector Espinosa's life, and the book is a lot like that. There were parts I liked, but ultimately the storyline was a bit twisted and weak. I dislike reading hundreds of pages before thrown into the last few pages, nay the last few seconds, there is a life or death countdown to a foregone conclusion. With all that was going on it was like the story ran out of steam. Tons and tons and tons of more-or-less irrelevant stuff happened, and then it was over. If there was something to recommend... I didn't discover what that might be.… (mais)

This was my first Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza Inspector Espinosa book, and I did not find it particularly good. The whole story was a series of random, seemingly unrelated events brought about by another series of random, seemingly unrelated events.

The book generally goes on in a normalish meandering tone, but then every now and again devolves into this weird prose that I don't really get, I don't understand the content nor how it fits in with the overall writing.

Here is an example:

"Espinosa couldn't say what it was about Flor that made him so uncomfortable and so intrigued, in the same proportion and intensity; he couldn't even claim that though she was a hooker she had an infantile ingenuousness, or that she was smart enough to transform her sexual sophistication into innocent artlessness. She wasn't extraordinarily beautiful, but her beauty did turn the heads of men and women, perhaps because it wasn't created only from the usual elements of beauty. In her beauty there was something demonic. The result was more alchemical than aesthetic, and its effect was uncommon. Flor disquieted and attracted him, not only sexually, though sex was the way her fascinating alchemy expressed itself. But Flor presented herself not as an answer to his desires but as a question posed to him, inviting him somewhere he could never really identify, modest but shameless, like a girl in a dirty magazine."

James Joyce got away with writing a lot of gibberish, but I don't think it works with Inspector Espinosa.

After several days I had to look back at the cover to see that this was an Inspector Espinosa story because I honestly couldn't remember. Not a lot of the story was making a whole lot of sense, just a bunch of random actions.

Otherwise, it is written in the vein of the killer or killers getting away because of the stupidity of the people who know who the killer or killers are. You know, like they're talking to the detective or journalist or whomever sleuth on the phone and start to say... "the killer is... wait, there is someone at the door, hold on a minute... BANG! they're dead"... and now the story can go on for hundreds more pages because the person or persons who always have all the information couldn't speak for another 5 milliseconds and solve the case / mystery / whatever. This book was a lot like that, but then, somehow, Espinosa miraculously fits it all together. Except at the end nothing is really resolved. In theory the person who started the series of random, seemingly unrelated events is found out and punished, and in theory the person who was hired to perpetuate the series of random, seemingly unrelated events is found and punished, but the why behind all that is cloudy at best. The ending is even more of a mystery.

There is nothing to really recommend this book. Set in Rio de Janeiro I thought this book had a lot more potential, might be a lot more interesting, but the story, characters, and backdrop didn't grab me at all.

And Espinosa, is he likable or do you just want to punch him in the face? One of the last descriptors is this sentence: "Though he knew that people thought of him as a cold rationalist, he recognized that in fact he was more a semidelirious fantasist."

Huh?… (mais)