Customer Reviews

Buried Strangers: A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation

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"Leighton Gage's first book, BLOOD OF THE WICKED, starts with the assassination of a Catholic bishop; from the first pages it is a book that can't be put down. Gage's second book, BURIED STRANGERS, begins with a dog and a bone and secret cemeteries. It, too, is a book the reader will not want to put down.

"Chief Inspector Mario Silva and his team are investigators for the federal police in Brazil. Although based in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, most of the action takes place in Sao Paulo. As with BLOOD OF THE WICKED, the author creates an atmosphere and sense of place by the descriptions of the unimaginable poverty of a favela, the neighborhoods of the destitute, and the lavish, protected mansions of those who need not answer for the source of their affluence.

"More cemeteries are found, with rows and rows of graves, and DNA proves that families are buried together. These are not the graves of the 'disappeared,' those critics of the government who vanished without a trace. These are more recent, and in such great numbers, that Silva and his team know that these people are victims of greed and a lack of humanity beyond the worst instincts of the majority of mankind.

"The author builds the story on some of the greatest accomplishments of science and the inevitable perversion of the talents of those who can best improve the lives of some of society's most desperate people. That the author does not keep the reader in the dark throughout the novel only makes the end more satisfying.

"Chief Inspector Silva is a worthy member of the club that includes Garcia-Roza's Espinosa, Mankell's Wallender, Grimes' Jury, Wilson's Falcon, Vargus' Adamsburg, and Rankin's Rebus.

"I look forward to the next book in this series.

Just finished BURIED STRANGERS and loved it. Great plot, I love the characters and I really couldn't put it down. Great police procedural. Leighton Gage is the real thing, he's up there with my other favorite authors, Henning Mankell and Per Wahloo and Sojwall. If you like Wallander and Martin Beck you will definitely enjoy Mario Silva. I liked Gage's first Mario Silva, BLOOD OF THE WICKED, I don't think it matters which one you read first. I'm sorry I have to wait until Jan 2010 for Gage's third book in the series and wish he'd started writing sooner, I'd be reading another one now.

In Leighton Gage's "Buried Strangers," thirty-seven unclothed corpses are found in a rain forest outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The homicide victims, including thirteen adults and twenty-four children, were unceremoniously dumped in unmarked graves. Who would commit such an atrocity and why? Nelson Sampaio, the director of the Brazilian Federal Police, based in Brasilia, is not all that interested in solving this horrific crime that probably took place three to seven years earlier. However, Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters, sidesteps his boss. Assisted by his nephew, Delegado Hector Costa, and Agente Arnaldo Nunes, Silva is determined to do everything in his power to apprehend the killer.

"Buried Strangers" is an engrossing police procedural that benefits from its exotic locale. For those unfamiliar with Brazil, this book provides a quick education about the huge chasm between the country's rich and poor citizens, the rampant police corruption, and the high crime rate that is fueled by drugs, gangs, and prostitution. The mystery of the hidden cemetery will test the tenacity of the investigators, who must pursue numerous leads before finally stumbling upon the astonishing reason for the terrible slaughter.

Gage's characters includes Dr. Gilda Caropreso, a lovely and sharp pathologist who catches Hector's eye, Ernesto and Clarice Portella, a bickering and bitter couple who live in a "favela" (shantytown) and resent being hounded by the police, and Delegado Titular Yoshira Tanaka, a henpecked husband whose shrewish wife makes his life miserable. Silva and his colleagues enjoy teasing one another, but they are deadly serious about their jobs. Unfortunately, the villains are stereotypes ranging from an incompetent buffoon to a remorseless fiend, and the plot is marred by some gaping holes and far-fetched coincidences. The book's conclusion is particularly contrived and cliché-ridden. Still, "Buried Strangers" draws the reader in, mostly because the author captures the atmosphere and culture of Brazil so successfully. In some ways, the country is the most interesting part of the story.

To quote the prologue of Adam Leigh Gollner's The Fruit Hunters, blame it on Brazil. It is in Brazil that a mass graveyard is uncovered. The victims appear to be in family groups, and it later appears that their killer might have been a surgeon or someone with surgical training as it seems that the sternums have been cut with a surgical saw.

Two police officers, Tanaka and Silva, begin to try to unravel the mystery, a task that is complicated by two salient factors. First, nearly the entire country is corrupt. Indeed, Tanaka is in this group and begins his pursuit of the solution motivated by his venality and the hope of a substantial bribe to let the culprit go free. Second, the victims appear to be from poor neighborhoods (favelas, Portuguese for "shanty town"), where police are loath to tread, in large part because of drug traffickers who don't hesitate to murder police officers. Eventually, though, Tanaka does manage to get on the right track.

"Buried Strangers" is a grim book, depicting Brazil as so thoroughly corrupt and violent that the film Turistas begins to look like a documentary. As I have never been to Brazil, I cannot testify to the level of accuracy in the depiction, but the novel does tend to take on the feel of a South American noir story. (This is not to say that I consider this a true noir novel as many of the elements I associate with noir are absent. Still, this book and the genre do share a certain feel.) For the most part, I thought the novel solid, and I certainly did learn a few colorful insults in Portuguese. The writing is generally solid, though there are a few curious decisions (e.g., using "alright" repeatedly and using words like "masticate" and "buss" rather than "chew" and "kiss") that sometimes took me out of the story. All in all, though, this thriller works, especially in the second half, when it really picks up the pace.

First Line: "Somewhere around here," Hans said, swinging his flashlight beam from the dark tunnel in front of them toward the thick wall of vegetation on the right.

When Herbert the Escape Artist (AKA an Old English Sheepdog) proudly brings back a human bone and waits for praise, the police are called instead. There, in a rain forest twenty kilometers from São Paulo, police find a clandestine cemetery. And another. The corpses of hundreds of human beings-- often interred in family groups-- have been secretly buried.

This is a case that Chief Inspector Mario Silva can become very passionate about, since he lost his only child to leukemia when his son was eight years old. But there's a problem named Nelson Sampaio who just so happens to be Silva's boss. Sampaio is one of those political appointees with his eye on promotion, and he is absolutely convinced that another politico is sabotaging him. To Sampaio, nothing is more important than Silva digging up the dirt on his nemesis. Does this bother Silva? No. One of the delights of this series has turned out to be watching the machinations of Silva as he circumvents the human obstacles in his way in order to do what must be done.

Although the first book in the series, the excellent Blood of the Wicked was a bit heavy-handed with torture, this second book deals more with the interactions between the characters and is laced with humor. As Silva and his team slowly piece together tiny clues, the reason for the mass graves becomes horrifyingly clear.The extra dashes of humor were welcome intervals between corrupt cops and politicians and secret cemeteries.

With just two books, this series has become one of my favorites because of the strength of its characters, its strong sense of place, its powerful plots... and its ability, not only to educate me about an unfamiliar part of the world, but to leave me with a sense of outrage over injustice. What am I outraged over? I don't want to say very much because I don't believe in spoiling the plot for people who haven't read the book. I'll just say that cattle in Brazil have more documentation than many of its two-legged citizens.

Entertaining, educational, emotional. Haven't read a book written by Leighton Gage?

Why?

After being thoroughly impressed by the first book in this series, Blood of the Wicked, which I considered one of the best mysteries I have read in the last year, I had to read the sequel. The truth is that I found this second novel even better than the first one, although before reading it I was convinced that was not possible.

Gage does quite a few things in his novels, all of them extremely well. First of all the central plot in this book moves at a frantic pace, you will find yourself reading way into the night if you are not careful. Then, the characters are complex, have flaws as any human being, and provide the story with a very special flavor. Finally, the way in which the author portrays life in Brazil, the culture, the corruption, and the passions of its people, is spot on.

The only caveat applicable to this series, and this novel in particular, is that those people that are bothered by excessive violence may find some passages hard to swallow. Those that have not issue with this should look no further, you have found one of the best mystery series available. Enjoy! I cannot wait for the third installment in this series.

BURIED STRANGERS
By Leighton Gage
ISBN: 978-1-56947-514-0
Soho Press, 2009
Hardcover, $24.00

In what has been called the largest urban forest in the world, the Serra da Cantareira, a young man seeking a dog stumbles across what turns out to be an entire clandestine cemetery. The local police delegado, Yoshiro Tanaka leads the investigation, but the case has also drawn the attention of the federal police, and Chief Inspector Mario Silva, who assigns his team to it as well. In the midst of this, Silva's maid has lost touch with her son, who was trying to enter the United States illegally. As Silva pursues his main investigation, he also gives some attention to the missing son, and finds his investigations unraveling strands of corruption, avarice, and murder that plumb the depths of human depravity.

Leighton Gage has written a story that captures the reader from the first and doesn't let go. The Brazilian setting is well-depicted, with the isolation of the Serra da Cantreira within the urban environs of Sao Paulo, and the pricey condominiums cheek-by-jowl with the one-room shacks of the favelas. The venality of the local police and national politicians is contrasted with Silva's federal agents, dedicated to solving the case. The case itself involves as pure a depiction of evil as any I've read lately, and the pace of the book drives the reader on to the finish. This book is highly recommended.

I'm always excited when I discover a new mystery writer who reeks with talent and imagination. Leighton Gage is my latest and I'm happy to see that other readers here agree. This is a very well-done book that should keep Gage in the top rank of writers of international thrillers -- this one set mostly in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Gage gives us an intimate look at the teeming city which contains so many interesting cultural and religious traditions. He has laid out an intriguing, riveting plot, peopled with colorful characters and authentic dialog. The plot is not forced, nor is it dependent on coincidence and serendipity, as are so many inferior police procedurals these days. Gage is for real; a keeper. I look forward to his other books.

When an errant dog unwittingly discovers a mass unmarked burial site, Chief Inspector Mario Silva is called upon to help investigate. Initial leads seem to point toward a cult and his boss Nelson Sampaio discourages Silva from pursuing the case further in favor of gathering dirt on a political opponent. However, Silva ignores him and keeps looking into the matter on the sly.

Silva discovers that the burial site is only one of many and that something even worse than a cult is behind it. BURIED STRANGERS is an excellent work of fiction. It explores the depth of corruption among police and in other walks of life in Brazil (not that such things are limited to that country). The story was so gripping, it kept me up half the night, two nights in a row. The book is a genuine page-turner and thought-provoking.

Debbi Mack
Least Wanted
Identity Crisis

Chief Inspector Mario Silva is Brazil's top cop, working out of the capital city, Brasilia. His new case arises out of the discovery, deep in the recesses of a rain forest, of what appears to be a clandestine cemetery, a spot where 37 bodies have been discovered, 24 of them children, as young as six, having been buried years ago, many of them in family groupings. The investigation uncovers an almost unbelievable history to the killings, and uncertainty as to whether or not they have stopped or merely that the bodies have been buried elsewhere.

For at least the early parts of the book, most chapters have a shifting pov from one to another of the police team working varying aspects of the investigation, which at first was unsettling but moves the plot along quickly and of course all coming together very neatly. The suspense builds steadily, and although much of the writing is wryly humorous, an ever more chilling scenario unfolds, one that has the ring of a frightening reality.

The author's secondary characters, the Federal cops working under Silva, are very strong and likeable, from Silva's nephew, Hector Costa; Arnaldo Nunes, on temporary assignment in Brasilia; Danusa Marcus, "the only child of a Rabbi who'd spent all of her teenage vacations working on a kibbutz" in Israel; Rosa Amorim, mother of three who has black belts in three martial arts and a degree in criminal justice; and Geraldo Goncalves, nicknamed Babyface. There are many others equally as well-drawn, including Gilda Caropreso, Sao Paolo's chief medical examiner; who finds a mutual attraction with Hector. There is a real sense of place of the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Brasilia, their people and politics, the rampant nepotism and corruption [referred to as "justice through enrichment"] and their allegiances to sports teams.

Silva in particular is a wonderful protagonist, honest and dedicated, and not without personal demons: his wife has a 'drinking problem,' mostly stemming from the death of their only child from leukemia at age eight years of age. The book kept me turning pages and losing complete track of time, and the pace, rapid throughout, picks up even more as the end of the book nears. Silva has been called South America's Kurt Wallander, and I can't disagree with that assessment. Happily, next up for this reader is the author's new novel, also featuring Mario Silva, just out in hardcover from Soho Press and entitled "Dying Gasp." I can't wait! Highly recommended.