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Blood of the Wicked (Hardcover)

by Leighton Gage (Author)
Key Phrases: federal cops, landless workers, Leighton Gage, Father Angelo, Dom Felipe (more...)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Gage's bloody debut, Chief Insp. Mario Silva is asked by his boss, the director of the Brazilian Federal Police, to solve the murder of Bishop Dom Felipe Antunes, who was assassinated at a church consecration in the remote Brazilian town of Cascatas. However, tensions between landowners and the Landless Workers' League embroil Silva in local politics when he must put equal resources into solving the disappearance of a local landowner's son, Orlando Muniz Junior. Priestly pedophilia, kidnappings and more murders punctuate the escalation of the conflict between landowners and reformers, while Silva also grapples with his personal demons, having tracked down and killed both his father's and brother-in-law's murderers. By the end of this brutal novel, it's hard to care who killed whom. It's also a miracle that Silva, who seems increasingly ineffectual, survives the mayhem. This ultraviolent mystery is not for the faint of heart. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

"Blood of the Wicked manages to pack a huge amount into a spare three hundred pages; power politics, petty violence, sexual scandal, saintly courage, staggering poverty and obscene wealth. A book that makes you care about its large cast of characters, even when you know that they are going to die-frequently horribly. This is a novel as rich and complex as Brazil itself, with villains who make you want to spit, and heroes whose goodness is heartbreaking."-Rebecca Pawel, Edgar Award-winning author of Death of a Nationalist

In the remote Brazilian town of Cascatas do Pontal, where landless peasants are confronting the owners of vast estates, the bishop arrives by helicopter to consecrate a new church and is assassinated.

Mario Silva, chief inspector for criminal matters of the federal police of Brazil, is dispatched to the interior to find the killer. The pope himself has called Brazil's president; the pressure is on Silva to perform. Assisted by his nephew, Hector Costa, also a federal policeman, Silva must battle the state police and a corrupt judiciary as well as criminals who prey on street kids, the warring factions of the Landless League, the big landowners, and the church itself, in order to solve the initial murder and several brutal killings that follow. Justice is hard to come by. An old priest, a secret liberation theologist, finally metes it out. Here is a Brazil that tourists never encounter.

Leighton Gage is married to a Brazilian woman and spends part of each year in Santana do Parnaiba, Brazil, and the rest of the year in Florida and Belgium. This is his first novel.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Soho Crime (January 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569474702
ISBN-13: 978-1569474709
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #796,351 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
federal cops, landless workers

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Leighton Gage, Father Angelo, Dom Felipe, Father Gaspar, Chief Inspector, Father Brouwer, Sao Paulo, Federal Police, Edson Souza, Senhor Muniz, Father Francisco, Orlando Muniz, State Police, Vicenza Pelosi, Mario Silva, Anton Brouwer, Diana Poli, Sergeant Menezes, Aurelio Azevedo, Republic Square, Dona Marcia, Colonel Ferraz, Jesus Christ, Luiz Pillar, Roberto Pereira

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

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3 star:		(2)
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4.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful story of frontier justice south of the equator, January 12, 2008

By	Duncan H. Haynes (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a carefully crafted mystery-thriller debut Blood of the Wicked, Leighton Gage reveals a little- seen side of Brazil. This is not a beach book of tanned and toned bodies moving to a languid bossa nova rhythm along the sandy shores of Rio de Janeiro. Nor is it an Amazon adventure. This story takes place in the pantal of the southeastern region. It is a gristly tale of greed, torture, murder, and of personal and institutional corruption in a country where one percent of the population owns half of the arable land, and where much of the peasantry is condemned to a life of involuntary servitude.

The story reveals the region to be a breeding ground for strife and Gage loses no time throwing us into the fray. Enter Dom Filipe Antunes, Bishop of Preidente Vargas, descending by helicopter on the town of Cascatas do Pantal to bestow blessings on the new church of Nossa Senhora dos Milagres. The bishop is greeted by a ring of townspeople, a crescent of banners of the Landless Worker's League and a posting of State Police. The delegation of local officials approaches at an annoyingly slow pace and a bullet from a high-powered rifle finds the bishop's heart as he stands alone.

Who did it? Was it landless workers upset that Christianity was not being practiced on its most fundamental level? Or was it wealthy landowners looking for another excuse to persecute the land-reform agitators?

Enter the institutions. The Vatican is upset. Powers in Brasilia demand a politically balanced solution. The job falls on the shoulders of protagonist Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters of the Federal Police of Brazil.

Mario Silva knows a lot about criminal activity in Brazil -- urban variety, anyway. In the book's early pages we learn how his father was murdered by robber after making a fatal mistake -- stopping for a red light. We also learn how Mario Silva found the robber and exacted justice, urban Brazilian style. Subjects of Silva's investigation included pawn brokers, street kids, hoodlems and policemen who supplement their income by shaking them down. Silva's action did not involve arresting his father's murderer and bringing him to trial. However, distinctive feature's of the robber's tatoo and the uniqueness of the stolen object made Silva absolutely certain that he had gotten and dispatched the right man.

Investigating the murder of the Bishop in provincial city of Cascatas do Pantal, Silva is not able to take such decisive action. He is hamstrung by bureaucracy, blocked by the uncooperative Colonel of the State Police, and is hampered by people's fear to speak. As Silva investigates systematically we learn many interesting facts the way. We learn about the "Theology of Liberation" which was once advocated by rural priests and has now found the disfavor of the Church hierarchy. We learn of the vast fazendas (rhymes with haciendas), some as large as Connecticut. We learn that the constitutional allows for seizure and purchase of unused portions of these large holdings by populist movements. We also learn that the legal process is complicated and that the judges are for sale.

In Blood of the Wicked, Lieghton Gage serves up a strong brew of horror story, police procedural, slasher novel and whodunit. It would defy classification were it not a true and never- ending story. It is the story of a land war and frontier justice, south of the equator. A landowner has his overseer nail a protesting peasant to a tree. A group of hooded vigilantes rousts the landowner from bed, butchers his overseer in front of his eyes, then carts the landowner off to be buried alive at the top of a hill. We learn that the commandant State Police is not just a bureaucratic short-timer, but is one of the bad guys. The priests, we learn, come in several flavors besides Jesuit and Franciscan. Escalating violence gets way ahead of Chief Inspector Silva's procedural investigation of the initial crime. The struggle becomes a combination of range war and Mafia turf fight with many players lending a hand. When the dust settles, justice is served, but mainly because Silva the only honest man left standing and because national TV cameras are poised to broadcast the story.

The "ripped from the headlines" quality of Blood of the Wicked is the result of the author's wide experience with the Brazil, which includes marriage and frequent visits to the country.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, September 21, 2008

By	Miran Ali (Dhaka, Bangladesh) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is very rare indeed when I feel the Amazon peer review system has guided me to a book I don't enjoy as much as the other reviewers. This unfortunately is one of them.
First off, it isn't a mystery. You'll know who the villain is just a few pages in. Second, the background of Silva, the federal policemen investigating the crimes, was overly melodramatic and contrived. Indeed the whole book is melodramatic and predictable. The only surprise is the continued brutality, which admittedly may be a part of Brazilian land disputes, but here only helps in tallying up the number of innocent victims. The overall tone is preachy and in only a couple of instances admits that the solutions to Brazil's land problems lie in some sort of compromise. The rest of the book is full of brave landless peasants fighting against evil landowners and corrupt cops with only the help from their friends, the equally brave Vatican defying Liberation Theology spouting priests (there are evil priests here too). I don't want to ascribe any politics to Leighton Gage, since I don't know much about him, but if the next book also has an overtly social reformist tone it'll be a disappointment as well.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Debut mystery brings Brazil vividly to life, January 6, 2008

By	Lesa Holstine (Glendale, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has already received rave reviews, but it doesn't hurt to add my praise. It's a brutal, graphic story at times, but Gage's notes at the end show he knows the Brazilian world he portrays. Leighton Gage's knowledge of the political, economic, and religious problems in Brazil is shown in his vivid descriptions of the cruelty of life.

Blood of the Wicked introduces Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters in the Brazilian Federal Police. He's a well-educated man, with a law degree and training with the FBI. And, he's a complicated character. It's well known in the country that Brazilian justice is subject to bribes, money and power. When Silva's father his brother-in-law were killed in the early years of Mario's career, he took matters into his own hands. Silva understands that sometimes "Brazilian justice" isn't actually justice.

Silva's latest case starts out as a problem, and only grows more complicated. Before it's over, it involves landowners and the landless, the state police, the media, street kids, and the Catholic Church. It begins, and ends, with the death of priests. When a bishop is assassinated, Silva's dislikable political boss sends him to take charge. He arrives to find his case entwined with a recent death of a family in the landless movement. Brazil has a constitutional obligation to confiscate untilled land and give it to the landless. The landowners fight back. The landless occupy land they don't own, and violence results. And, the corrupt police support the landowners in many areas.

As Silva and his small team from the Federal Police investigate, they only face opposition from the state police and the landowners. Before Silva can put together the facts, he finds events escalating out of control, as reporters are murdered, the families occupying land are massacred, and each clue leads to more violence. And, suspicion alone can't solve the case.

Leighton Gage has written a powerful debut mystery. He brings Brazil to life, with the complex politics, and ugliness of the poverty, and, at times, the life. For those who object to the brutality in the book, the author explains that documented deaths are over 1,500 in Brazil's land wars. Gage shows the extremes of poverty and wealth, capturing it vividly in two scenes linked by one character, the mother of a street boy. He tells of the family tragedies in Brazil, and the crime. And everything is linked together, the lifestyles, the police, the politics, and the Church. Chief Inspector Mario Silva himself, is a complex man, who has witnessed, and lived, the contradictions of Brazilian life and "Brazilian justice."

I'm waiting for the return of Silva in the sequel to Blood of the Wicked.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Spectacular
This is a novel that first of all is excellently written, the author's style fully engages the reader and does not let go until the final page. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Sebastian Fernandez

4.0 out of 5 stars The plot won't let you go
This is an unusual detective story, in that the inspector doesn't seem to have any engaging personal quirks like Nero Wolfe, Inspector Montalbano or Sister Pelagia. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Patto

5.0 out of 5 stars Blood of the Wicked, great read
I would compare Leighton Gage's writing style to Henning Mankell, Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall.
There are no wasted words. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Susie

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best
Blood of the Wicked

I started reading this book on a whim because my kids are finally asleep and I wanted to relax with a good book. It was a great choice. Read more

Published 5 months ago by M. Ashley

5.0 out of 5 stars Wicked Truths
When I lived in Brasil in the 1970s, the military junta was in power, and the power of the police and the military was absolute. Read more

Published 6 months ago by K. A. Minden

4.0 out of 5 stars Blood of the Wicked
Blood of the Wicked (2007) introduces Mario Silva, chief inspector for criminal matters of the federal police of Brazil, dispatched to a remote town in the interior to investigate... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Lucinda Surber

3.0 out of 5 stars Won't be looking for a sequel
Despite some strong narrative writing here, "Blood of the Wicked" leans so much on brutality and violence that enjoyment of the story is often compromised by its very bloodiness... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Blue

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Gripping Story
This is an extremely well written and engaging book by a first-time published author. I can't wait for his next mystery to come out in January of next year. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Truth Seeker

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning: May cause insomnia.
I like to read in bed before going to sleep. Usually it helps me relax and opens the way for a restful sleep. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Mark Squillante

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating but violent Brazilian police procedural
In a classic sh*t rolls down hill, the Pope calls the Brazilian president twice; in turn the president pressures the Director of the Brazilian Federal Police Nelson Sampaio to... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Harriet Klausner

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