Claudia Piñeiro

Claudia Pineiro is well-known in Argentina as a crime novelist, and several years ago I read and enjoyed one of her crime novels, Thursday Night Widows. This book, however, is not by any stretch a crime novel or a mystery, but rather a very literary exploration of character.

As the novel opens a woman named Mary Lohan is returning to Argentina after 20 years living in the United States. We learn that she left Argentina suddenly, after a traumatic or tragic event, and that she left family behind. Slowly the novel unfolds, as we learn what brings Mary back to Argentina, what caused her to leave, and what happened to her family. Mostimportantly, the novel explores whether the scars of the past ever be healed.

This was a quiet and moving book. It was to an extent mysterious, but not a mystery. I enjoyed it, though it was certainly different than what I was expecting.

3 1/2 stars… (more)

This novel comes as a reminder of how much translated crime fiction has fallen off my radar in recent years, and also what a different flavour this author in particular brings.

The Crime writer of the national newspaper covering this murder in a gated community is a fairly new appointment, inexperienced, and is referred to as Crime Boy. His editor decides to provide a different slant to the case by installing a novelist, a former lover, in the gated community, to write a series of articles about the life that the murder victim was leading. These articles will be published simultaneously with whatever Crime Boy can provide. The victim's wife had been murdered in the same house three years earlier, but apart from the way she was murdered, was there any connection?

In addition the newspaper is still employing its former crime writer, on what he regards as fairly useless tasks, and he decides, against his better judgement, that Crime Boy needs tutelage. Between them, with Betty Boo, the three of them make a formidable team.

A most enjoyable read.… (more)

Poco después de que Rita aparece muerta en la iglesia que suele frecuentar, la investigación se da por cerrada, y su madre es la única que no renuncia a esclarecer el crimen. Pero jaqueada por la enfermedad, es también la menos indicada para encabezar la búsqueda del asesino. Un penoso viaje de los suburbios a la Capital, una vieja deuda de gratitud, una conversación reveladora.

Una novela que desnuda los secretos de sus personajes y las facetas ocultas del autoritarismo y la hipocresía que conforman nuestra sociedad.

Elena sabe ganó en Alemania el certamen LiBeraturpreis 2010, que premia a la mejor novela escrita por una mujer.… (more)