Customer Reviews

Pursuit: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery (Inspector Espinosa Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a fan of Garcia-Roza for a while and was very impressed with the first three installments in the Espinosa series. This book, which for a while seemed was going to be better than the fourth installment (a disappointment in itself), ended up abruptly. The ending explains nothing and resolves little. I was a very frustrated and angry reader when I turned the last page.

The book is divided into "stories", what should rather have been presented as chapters of the same story. The first one of these is stellar. It builds up the mystery around Jonas/Isidoro and leaves one yearning to get to the end of the book and to discover what is behind this baffling character. His motivations are dark and his actions are confusing. The plot seems to lead the reader closer and closer to what could have been an exciting ending.

What happens in the end, however, I can tell you without offering any spoilers. Nothing is resolved. No questions are answered. The story ends. It almost looks like the author didn't know what to do with it. Read the book if you want, but don't say that you weren't warned. I give it two stars only for the unachieved potential this story had.

Hospital psychiatrist Dr. Arthur Nesse has a problem. One of his patients, a man variably known as Isidoro and Jonas, has been stalking him. Now, he believes his family is in danger, and he calls on Inspector Espinosa for help. His daughter and the patient are both missing, and Nesse suspects foul play.

When the daughter shows up at home, unharmed, you think that the book is over. But Garcia-Roza's psychological-thriller Pursuit is only just beginning. The plot of this book has more twists and turns than the best roller-coaster - it's designed to keep you guessing frm the beginning.

This book is the fifth in the Inspector Espinosa series, and I was worried that I'd come in too late to really enjoy the book. I'm sure that there were some inside references that I missed, but I didn't feel that I missed anything important in the book by not having read the previous four. In fact, I'm looking for the others in the series now, so that I can learn more about this fascinating detective, Inspector Espinosa.

The book isn't a mystery in the whodunit genre - it is far more a thriller, with psychological overtones that throw a light on the darkest qualities of the human psyche. The book will keep you guessing - and keep you reading - right to the very end. There were times as I read the book when I really felt that I understood the ammount of confusion that Espinosa felt as he tried to deal with this increasingly bizarre case. The only real difficulty that I had with the book was the unatisfying conclusion. I really felt that nothing was resolved, the questions about Isidoro/Jonas really unanswered. This unsatisfying conclusion aside, the book is a fascinating read, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys psychological drama.

The fifth installment in Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza's Inspector Espinosa series finds the chief of Rio de Janeiro's 12th precinct looking into a series of related complaints. A certain Dr. Nesse, a psychiatrist, contacts Espinosa after his daughter disappears, and he and Espinosa have further contact later on when more troubles befall the psychiatrist and his family. Nesse is convinced that he is being persecuted by one of his patients, an enigmatic young man who calls himself Jonah, but substantiating his accusations proves to be difficult.

So much for the plot, as I don't want to give anything away. This is a very smart book. Garcia-Roza tells the story initially from the perspective of the psychiatrist, who believes he is being stalked by Jonah and feels himself unaccountably threatened by it. Readers will feel the threat too: there is something menacing about Jonah's behavior, despite that his actions are ostensibly innocent. But as the story progresses the situation becomes increasingly ambiguous: is Jonah as bad as we're led to believe, or is the psychiatrist a paranoid? As Jonah says at one point in the story regarding his own behavior, "As you can see, the facts are the same, but the meaning is different." Interpretation is everything. The levels of possibility in the novel make for a delicious read.

Pursuit is translated into English from its original Portuguese. I can't speak for the author's style in his native language, but in English the prose is wonderfully straightforward. The clarity of the writing reminds me of the writing style of Patricia Highsmith (the author of, among other books, the five Tom Ripley novels), and Garcia-Roza's writing is similar to Highsmith's also in that he manages to create an atmosphere of tension from his descriptions of everyday activities. This one's definitely worth the read, and it would make an excellent selection for discussion groups. Familiarity with previous books in the series is not necessary.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

Dr. Artur Nesse is a psychiatrist with a problem. His seventeen-year-old daughter is missing and the alleged abductor is one of Dr. Nesse's own patients.

Jonas, aka Isidoro Cruz, is a young man whose psychosis is difficult for Dr. Nesse to pinpoint.

He refuses to go by the name his parents gave him and doesn't seem to have anything more to speak of than that. He does, however, spend far too much time around the medical facility ostensibly stalking Dr. Nesse.

The other patients and employees know Jonas by name and find him quite amiable. The good doctor, however, doesn't see him in the same light, especially when his daughter, Letícia, is taken in by Jonas' charm and good looks.

When Letícia disappears, Dr. Nesse's first thought is that she is with Jonas. He seeks out the services of Chief Inspector Espinosa, but within a few days Letícia has returned home, insisting she left of her own free will. Determined to prevent Jonas from having any further contact with his daughter, Dr. Nesse has Jonas detained in the psychiatric ward. Unfortunately, the devastation this causes to a teen-aged girl "in love" leads to Letícia's very real emotional breakdown.

Months later, Jonas is reportedly dead and the doctor's younger daughter is now missing. A new set of troubles ensue wherein Chief Espinosa has to look at the previous connection between doctor and patient in a whole new way. He must decipher who was actually the perpetrator and who was the victim in order to get to the bottom of the current mysterious disappearances and deaths.

Pursuit is the fifth and final installment in the Chief Espinosa series of books by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza. While the location is, indeed, distinctive and exotic, the plot resolution is anti-climactic.

The reader is left with more questions than those arising from the story's peak. The truly one-dimensional characters do not lend any additional credence to the novel.

The author does, however, have a simple and straightforward way of writing that eases readers through to the end almost before they realize they`ve reached it. Pursuit cannot be labeled a top-pick, but it's not necessarily one to avoid altogether.

Copacabana, Brazil Chief Inspector Espinosa is on vacation when psychiatrist Dr. Arthur Nesse called pleading with him to help because he believes his seventeen years old daughter Leticia was kidnapped by a patient, Isadoro "call me Jonas" Cruz who previously had been stalking him. Though he knows he should send the good doctor to the police station, Espinosa agrees to do a little investigating as he is bored since his graphic designer wife Irene received the sudden invitation to attend a two-week seminar at New York's MOMA.

However, the prime suspect in at least the psychiatrist's mind turns up murdered. Other homicides follow all linked back to Dr. Nesse and Jonas. As Espinosa digs deeper into the backgrounds of Nesse and Jonas, he finds strange information that makes him wonder just who is the paranoid one, the doctor or the patient. The more the Brazilian cop learns, the more he thinks that Nesse stalked Jonas and perhaps killed him and the others. However, proving such a way out theory seems impossible and besides he still must rescue a missing teenager as well as stop the serial killer.

PURSUIT is a fantastic entry in an excellent police procedural series, one of the best on the market today as the Brazilian flavoring augments a delightful investigation. Espinosa is at his best in this case uncovering clues that make no sense as he, like readers, has stereotyped the psychiatrist and the patients. If he fails to make paradigm switches, he will fail. Fans who have not read the four previous translations of Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza (see THE SILENCE OF THE RAIN) are missing out on the works of a great novelist.

Harriet Klausner

"Pursuit" is an unusually intelligent and original psychological suspense thriller involving multiple murders - I was never quite sure as to how many until the end. The narrative is written in leisurely, almost dreamlike sequences, perhaps a reflection of the exotic tropical setting, Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza's plot and style are almost surreal, emphasized by the refreshing lack of violent action and bloody imagery one would expect given the total number of corpses at the novel's conclusion.

Our protagonist, Chief Inspector Espinosa of the Copacabana police, would much rather own a used-book store, spending his time collecting first editions and reading his stock than supervising detectives and running-down leads on suspected and known criminals. He is sensitive, yet cynical. Divorced, and alone for many years, he has now found a somewhat younger woman, Irene, a graphic artist, who understands and enjoys his quirkiness.

Espinosa is interrupted, while enjoying the last few days of his vacation, by a phone call from psychiatrist Artur Nesse. A colleague had given Nesse the Chief Inspector's name, and the doctor does not feel comfortable, at this point, talking with anyone else about his problem. His seventeen year-old daughter has disappeared...was kidnapped, so he says. How does he know she has been kidnapped? "It's obvious," he replies.

A new patient, Isadoro Cruz, an attractive young man who insists his real name is Jonas even though some folks call him Isadoro, appears to be more intent on stalking Nesse than seeking his professional help. Jonas/Isadoro actually does not believe he needs psychiatric treatment, and his purpose for meeting with the doctor is to "resolve a personal matter." Jonas sits on a bench, daily, under a mango tree, easily seen from Nesse's office window. He is charming and quickly makes friends with the hospital staff and patients. He also makes friends, good friends, with Leticia Nesse, the doctor's oldest daughter. Leticia and Jonas go missing. Thus the disappearance/kidnapping and the need for police intervention - from the perspective of Dr. Arturo Nesse.

Garcia-Roza tells his tale in three parts - Story Number One, Number Two and Number Three - an extremely effective device to unfold a plot this complex. At times the reader is not readily able to distinguish fact from fantasy, nor figure out who is the stalker and who is being pursued, who is psychotic from who is sane. Espinosa reflects: "There was something in Dr.Nesse's story that didn't sound quite right. Or maybe that wasn't it, but several things, different things, were off. Maybe that was the problem: too much information. There were several different stories, each of which made sense, but together they didn't add up."

As the characters wander through the different neighborhoods of Rio - Copacabana, Ipanema, beautiful beaches, boutiques and gourmet restaurants, the growing favelas, (slums), are juxtaposed with the lush wealth of this famous city. Crime, poverty and social injustice are exposed as is the bribery and corruption in the police department - all making a dramatic backdrop to this bizarre mystery.

A friend gave me my copy of "Pursuit" to read and review. I really enjoyed the novel and characters enough to go out and purchase the other books, (I believe there are four), in the Inspector Espinosa Mystery series. "Pursuit" is definitely a Five Star read. Although Espinosa is a strong personality, his life, activities and cohorts take a back seat to the mystery. I like this too - lots! If I want to read a mystery/suspense thriller, that is what I am looking to read - not a soap opera about the mainstay characters in a series.

Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza is a distinguished academic and best selling novelist who lives in Rio De Janiero. The Espinosa series has been translated into six different languages. I highly recommend this latest addition.
JANA

Set in Rio de Janeiro, Pursuit is told in three parts, a psychological mystery that incorporates the unknowable subconscious into the actions of the characters. In the first story, a psychiatrist, Dr. Arturo Nesse, contacts Inspector Espinoza of the 12th Precinct to report that he is being stalked by a patient, a young man, Isidore Cruz, who insists his real name is Jonas. As the sessions with Jonas progress, Dr. Nesse becomes concerned for the welfare of his wife and two daughters, especially when Jonas approaches the older daughter and the two disappear together for two days. When Leticia returns home, her father is furious; in his rage, he sets events in motion that will disrupt his whole family and change the direction of their future. Inspector Espinoza is almost peripheral to the story at this point, as the young man, once hospitalized, cannot be found.

It isn't until the second story that the inspector becomes more actively involved, when the doctor's younger daughter, Roberta, disappears. Positive that the parents are withholding information, Espinoza nevertheless pursues every avenue in hopes of recovering Roberta. By story number three, it is clear that things are terribly wrong in this small family, the doctor now separated from his wife and all but estranged from his daughters over the last few months. His once organized life has deteriorated into dishabille and slovenliness, his personal habits and behavior growing more bizarre. When Nesse's ex-wife, Dona Teresa, is found dead outside her apartment, the mystery quickly unravels as Espinoza and his detectives scramble to make sense of a case shrouded in mystery, peopled by ghosts: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde aren't just creatures out of literature. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are all of us."

By the final desperate situation, it is clear that no easy answers are available for this convoluted psychological drama, the real and the imagined ingrained in the characters perceptions of themselves and the problems they face. Garcia-Roza's genius lies in revealing the complex inner workings of a tormented mind and how the mental illness of one infects those around him. Guided by forensics, evidence, logic and instinct, Inspector Espinoza is taxed beyond the parameters of the common criminal investigation, drawn into the murky world of the subconscious, the elementary crime altered by perception. Eerie and discomfiting, Dr. Nesse's complaints evoke danger from another perspective, one where logic has no purchase. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

I discovered Mr. Garcia-Roza by reading A Window in Copacabana. I really liked it and was looking for more of the same with this book, Pursuit.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of issues with this one.

I understand this is the last in a series of police procedurals with Chief Espinosa in Rio de Janeiro. Probably a good idea, since he seems to have lost his passion for telling Espinosa's story. For example, after a perfunctory prologue which introduced Espinosa to Dr. Nesse, the story's main troubled character, Espinosa is then left out of the first 1/3 of the book!

Then, Det. Welber gets some serious story time as we travel via public transport to his home in the North where he lives with his parents, dates a local woman who also lives with her parents, etc.

Frankly, after being so impressed with A Window in Copacabana, I was somewhat baffled with this effort.

Unfortunately, the worst part was the lack of a satisfactory resolution to the story. The characters, especially Isadoro/Jonas, though interesting, in the end are just plot machinations of the author. Ultimately, he fails to explain the character's strange behavior, which was the inciting reason for the entire book!

[...]

Too bad it seems he simply ran out of gas and/or interest in his character here. Hopefully, in the new series I understand he's developing, he'll regain that spark which makes his writing at its best very good indeed.