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Blood of Paradise: A Novel (Mortalis)
 
 
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Blood of Paradise: A Novel (Mortalis) (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: David Corbett, Blood of Paradise, San Bartolo Oriente (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Corbett's third novel, a moving if somewhat directionless thriller, is as much a political statement as it is crime fiction. Jude McManus, a young American bodyguard assigned to keep watch over a business executive working for an El Salvador bottling plant, is approached by Bill Malvasio, an old Chicago police partner of McManus's late father, who, along with another cop, was fired from the force for corruption. Malvasio, who fled the U.S. for El Salvador during the scandal, wants to hire McManus to return to Chicago and bring back the third member of the trio. McManus accepts the job because Malvasio's reason seems benevolent—there's a job waiting, and the old partner has fallen on hard times. It's a decision McManus soon regrets. Corbett (Done for a Dime) spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the wreck that El Salvador has become since the civil war of the 1980s. While interesting in small doses, the sociopolitics detracts from a meandering plot already lacking in suspense and punch. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Jude McManus is a young American bodyguard for a hydrologist who is investigating the state of aquifers in El Salvador. The son of a crooked, disgraced, and now deceased Chicago cop, Jude is working to maintain his moral compass in a country that seems to lack one of it own. Corruption, privilege, and brutality are the norm, but the sudden appearance of Bill Malvasio, one of his father's old cronies, really sends his compass spinning and puts Jude, and many other people, in danger. Corbett's latest is a curious book. It begins with an epigraph by journalist Peter Maas that compares the current situation in Iraq to El Salvador, and it ends with a dozen-page essay on the disaster of Reagan-era, neocon-inspired foreign policy, which led to nearly a third of the El Salvador population leaving the country. In between, there is a 400-page novel that seems disconnected from neocons or Iraq. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Corbett simply bit off more than almost any author could chew--but he makes a game attempt, and there is much here to engage the thoughtful reader. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 6, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812977335
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812977332
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #308,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

David Corbett
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
David Corbett, Blood of Paradise, San Bartolo Oriente, Truco Valdez, Hector Torres, Torkland Overby, Captain Dominguez, San Miguel, Marta Valdez, Horizon House, San Marcelino, San Salvador, Wenceslao Sola, Consuela Rojas, Bill Malvasio, Laugh Master, State Department, Los Rinconcitos, World Bank, Axel Odelberg, Humilde Lopez, Sig Sauer, Peace Accords, Costa del Sol, Meanwhile Eileen
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Simply Terrific Crime Thriller, March 12, 2007
By Ronald Carver (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Corbett sets his novel in present day El Salvador. The crimes are committed by the hired guns of an oligarchy hoping to silence the brave souls who expose the rape of that nation's economic and environmental resources. There is plenty of human drama, betrayal and brutality. Corbett makes a powerful tale all the more shocking by weaving in the real-life story of the recent assassination of Jose Gilberto Soto, an American citizen and Teamster leader who returned to his native country in an effort to link up with union leaders there. Just weeks after Soto's murder, I traveled to San Salvador along with a group of religious and human rights leaders in a futile attempt to prod Salvadoran officials to find his assassins. I can attest that Corbett captures the frustration, the repression and terror that confronts those who battle for justice and oppose a brutally corrupt regime propped up by our own government.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Crime Fiction , May 9, 2007
As I got into Blood of Paradise I thought this is a great story Corbett has got going here, but it's going to be tough to hold it together because he takes on so much. But he pulled it off and it's a great read. What starts with the mystery of desire and attraction quickly descends into a world of moral ambiguity and one where both personal code and the politics of El Salvador and of America are called into question. But not in a way that runs the story aground. I kept going back to this novel every night.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Super political thriller, April 6, 2007
Jude McMannus works in El Salvador as an executive protection specialist assigned to work with an American hydrologist. He moved from Chicago, haunted by his distant past. As a teenager, he watched his family fall apart after his father, who was a Chicago cop, was arrested in a huge corruption scandal. The result of the arrest was his parents' divorce and his father's death under very suspicious circumstances. Shortly after that, Jude decided to join the army and start a new life.

However, the past did not want to be forgotten that easily and one of his father's old cop friends appears in El Salvador. Bill Malvaiso had fled Chicago to avoid being arrested. He contacted Jude to ask a favor. Since he is unable to go back to the U.S. he needs Jude's help. He asks him to go back to Chicago and bring Jude's dad's and Bill's mutual friend, Strock, to El Salvador. Jude agrees to help; however he is full of uncertainty. Soon he finds himself involved in a big corruption plot where he must put his life at risk to protect values that he strongly believes in.

Blood of Paradise is a skillfully written and very detailed political thriller. It gives the reader a wide range of characters that all have a crucial role in the plot. The book has many layers. In addition to the political background, it also has a romantic thread which makes it a little bit less dark and pessimistic. The picture of El Salvador during the times of turmoil and extreme chaos, where corruption rules and citizens face starvation, prostitution and everyday death, is very realistic and extremely detailed. It's not hard to put yourself in the characters' shoes and find yourself faced with crucial decisions.

I would recommend the novel to all readers who like darker and more complicated books. Blood of Paradise is definitely not a book one reads to relax after a hard day of work.

Armchair Interviews says: Readers who like heavier reading will undoubtedly enjoy Blood of Paradise.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Meandering and pointless
I agree with the editorial at top of the description for this book. This is not a novel, it is a political opinion piece on the state of El Savador. Read more
Published 5 months ago by W. J. Molinar

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, Well-written and Riveting
For some reason, a lot of critics seem to favor books written for stupid people, and for those critics, this book falls short. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Stuart Archer Cohen

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Literary Thriller
The trajectory of writer David Corbett's novel writing career is pretty breathtaking. If he'd been content to write pulpish crime novels like his first effort, "The Devil's... Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. Harris

5.0 out of 5 stars superb
this man can write,,,in some ways its evokes Mystic River,,,albeit in El Salvador,,,the themes (redemption, revenge) are intense, and the writing is fluid,,,
Published on October 31, 2007 by David J. Gordon

5.0 out of 5 stars El Salvador noire
This book is a story of El Salvador on many levels. It is a murder mystery which is part of a larger scheme with the dominant powers in that country. Read more
Published on October 16, 2007 by John Augsbury

4.0 out of 5 stars Serious & Intriguing
Inspired by the eloquent, yet deeply disturbing Greek tragedies of long ago, Blood of Paradise, is a dark novel, penned by one of today's most passionate writers. Read more
Published on August 8, 2007 by K. McGill

4.0 out of 5 stars Taut thriller with a message
David Corbett's best novel to date. Excellent feel for El Salvador and its corrupt political situation caused in part by its multi-layered relationship with the USA, the great... Read more
Published on July 28, 2007 by Michael C. Radesky

5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Corbett's work is a thriller-reader's dream: flawed heros, colorful troubled settings, and sociopathic villians set in paradise.
Published on July 20, 2007 by Timothy Rose

5.0 out of 5 stars stranger than fiction
Corbett's third portrait of evil plays out in the real world, real time setting of El Salvador, a tiny country where truth is, alas, stranger than his fictional riffs. Read more
Published on July 19, 2007 by S. Shea

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and compelling read from beginning to end
I need to state at the outset that I had a bit of a problem while reading BLOOD OF PARADISE by David Corbett. Read more
Published on May 29, 2007 by Bookreporter.com

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