Southwesterly Wind: An Inspector Espinosa Mystery

A very low-key South American procedural. It will get under your skin like the sinister premonition that sets the story in motion. The enigmatic finish will nag at you for days.

It's a catchy narrative hook. A young man approaches Inspector Espinosa of the Rio de Janiero police to tell him of a most bizarre prediction: that he knows a murder is about to happen and he knows who the murderer is-himself! Thus, "Southwesterly Wind begins, the third in the Inspector Espinosa series by Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza. In translation, Garcia-Roza's compelling police procedural is well worth the time. Over the course of the trilogy, the author has developed and presented a respectable policeman and story line. Gideon (thirty) is a single young man who lives alone with his mother. At his last birthday party, a seer approaches him to predict that before his next birthday, he will murder someone. Unsettling, of course, and Gideon finally yields to the intense pressure of such a prediction to arrange a meeting with Espinosa, in which he confesses of the prediction. He asks for help. Espinosa is a bit skeptical but a sixth sense tells him not to dismiss the young man so easily. And before long, a co-worker and friend of Gideon's is found dead in the subway, having been run over by the train. Then another death, this time the clairvoyant who'd made the prediction in the first place. Espinosa is left to tie the clues together and to solve the case, as all the evidence indicates that, despite the fact Gideon knew both victims, he has alibis in both instances. Garcia-Roza not only masterfully handles the police procedural here, but also underscores the work with landscape and atmosphere of Rio. Espinosa's mannerisms, his personal thoughts and developments which make him into a human being, all are woven intricately into this work. He's a policeman we can admire and respect, a character "worth knowing." This is a series that should continue. The publisher's comments indicate that the author is a great success in Brazil. Now we have him here in the States. It's a welcomed immigration.