The Silence of the Rain

Inspector Espinoza of the Rio de Janeiro police department would far rather be browsing bookstore shelves than doing his job, but when he's assigned the case of a man shot in his own car in a parking garage, he reluctantly gets to work. The case ends up far more complicated and far-reaching than he expected and, given the corruption in the police force, there are very few people he can trust; a younger colleague and an old friend who is working as an investigator for the insurance company that holds a policy on the dead man. The case takes him through a bunch of suspects and women he is attracted to, from the wife of the victim, to the secretary of the dead man who has disappeared, to a petty street criminal.

This was an interesting but show more often slow-paced book, as the detective protagonist far prefers rearranging the stacks of books in his apartment or reading his latest acquisition to active investigation. Still, he is dogged and thorough and sharp and I found the setting and unusual viewpoint of the detective refreshing and I will definitely keep an eye out for other books in this Brazilian series. show less

I have a soft spot for crime novels. This one seemed pretty typical with a few twists.

What I found interesting was the shifting perspectives at the beginning of the book. The book shifted form several different characters in the 3rd person. Then shifting to Inspector Espinosa in 1st person in later chapters. We always had more information than Espinosa did. At the very beginning we learn that Ricardo Carvalho has committed suicide, but that fact has been hidden from Espinosa and the police. It is assumed that he has been murdered. We see the insights and motivations of several characters which Inspector Espinosa never sees. He has to come up with his own theories on circumstances which we know the details about.

Inspector Espinosa is not show more your typical super sleuth. In fact as a detective he seems rather average. At least in this book he did not put all the pieces together. He did not always guess the facts that we knew. When suspects lied to him he might feel that they were, but it was always gut instinct. He is, however, honest and diligent, and this serves him well.

He also has curious habits. He eats frozen food, orders pizza, and eats at McDonalds. The only thing interesting his eats are pork sandwiches with an old police buddy of his. He lives in a old apartment filled with books and spends much of his weekends attempting to get his books under control. Since he has no bookshelves this proves to be a sisyphean task. Still he continues to add to his stacks of books. Maybe it's this habit which endears him to me.

Rio was a main character in the book, but other than listing places I did not get a feel for it. That seems like a missed opportunity. I would have liked more local color. I did get a feeling for the level of police corruption and poverty, but little else.

There is, however, a growing mystery that we are not aware of. Suspects and witnesses are dying. This time it is murder. While the real mystery was not revealed until the end, it was rather easy to guess who was the culprit. It also seems like Espinosa should have had suspicions, but he did not.

The ultimate ending is a complete left turn. It's funny, strange, and somewhat unbelievable which left me wondering if I was satisfied with he ending or not. I'm still not sure. However, I liked the journey to get there.

I'll likely read more books in the series. show less

In a parking garage in the center of Rio de Janeiro, corporate executive Ricardo Carvalho is found dead in his car, a bullet in his head, his wallet and briefcase missing. Inspector Espinosa is called in to investigate the apparent robbery and murder, but the world-weary Espinosa knows that things are not always as they seem. Carvalho’s recently acquired one-million-dollar life insurance policy and the subsequent disappearance of his secretary Rose complicate matters—as does Espinosa’s attraction to Carvalho’s beautiful widow, one of the suspects. And when two more people turn up dead, Espinosa must speed up his investigation before anyone else becomes a casualty.

Inspector Espinosa is an interesting character, in his mid show more forties, a failed marriage behind him, a bit old fashioned, a book collector and reader of English classics, and to my mind at least, a touch of Inspector Clueso about him.

I'm not spilling any beans if I tell you that right from the start the reader knows what has happened in this death. But of course Inspector Espinosa does not have the advantage that we have - we were witnesses at the death scene, for a few moments at least. And so we watch Espinsosa test all sorts of hypotheses and follow false trails. We can only hope, in the words of Sir Thomas More, that when his head has finished turning, it is facing in the right direction, and that he comes to the right conclusion. It is a pity he can't feel us willing him on.

THE SILENCE OF THE RAIN has an interesting structure. In PART I we see Espinosa in the third person. In fact we enter many people's heads in the same way. In PART II Espinosa is in the first person, we actually hear how he thinks. And then in PART III, we see him "from the outside" again.
If you've read this book, how did that strike you?

My rating: 4.5

THE SILENCE OF THE RAIN is the first in Garcia-Roza's Inspector Espinosa series.
I'm certainly interested in reading more, now that I've discovered him.Many thanks to Rob at The View from the Blue House who pointed the way to him in our mutual quest: the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.
It is also interesting to find out that the author was 60 years old when he wrote this first novel. Check an interview with him here. Thanks to Jose Ignacio Escribano of The Game's Afoot for pointing to this article.

In the list below, from Fantastic Fiction, the dates (I think) indicate dates published in English.
1. The Silence of the Rain (2002)
2. December Heat (2003)
3. Southwesterly Wind (2004)
4. A Window in Copacabana (2005)
5. Pursuit (2006)
6. Blackout (2008)
7. Alone in the Crowd (2009) show less

I hate to leave bad reviews, as an author myself I know how disheartening they can be, but this book didn't work at all for me. I would say perhaps if you like meditative, literary books it might be more effective for you, but as a crime novel it doesn't really work.

The main detective is probably the best thing about the novel. He is a good character, but as a detective he leaves a lot to be desired. He was more interested in his books and a doomed crush on one of the witnesses than solving the crime. The book also continually gave away plot points, so the reader was ahead of the detective all the way and hence there was no tension or suspense in the story.

Action scenes are also clearly not the author's strong point: the attempted show more drive by shooting of the detective seemed to barely interrupt his walk home.

And the less said about the ending the better - it is a spectacularly ill-considered dénouement that fails on all levels.

But, obviously, other people like it. I'd just suggest the potential reader should be aware that it's not a mainstream crime novel. show less

What starts as a workmanlike mystery novel quickly becomes a haunting account centered around Detective Espinosa, a bookish, uncorrupted police veteran. The deceased becomes so in an enigmatic event and the story quickly entwines his secretary Rose, his elegant wife Bia, his somewhat mysterious business colleague Lucena, a street sharp Max, and a handful of other characters each of whom is properly fleshed out and returns to the action often enough to keep them straight. The story seems unsolvable until very late, and while unpredictable, leaves a number of questions outstanding--if having all the loose ends and plot mentions tied up and explained at the end is important, do not read this book. The references to Rio de Janeiro are show more palatable and not overwhelming--only in one spot does the author annoyingly inventory a series of inscrutable street names for half a page. If anything, the author's juxtaposition of the Detective's personality and wanderings through the city and characters, mixed with the setting, go to pointing to the huge range of unseen lives all being experienced together in a compact geography. show less

A man is found dead in his car in Rio de Janeiro and while Inspector Espinosa tries to find his killer, the other characters in the drama are murdered, one after the other. This was different from what I had expected in that the reader knows the whole time what happened to the first man who dies, but it is really difficult to figure out what on earth happens to everyone else. I did catch on quite a few chapters earlier than I had wanted to, but it was still a good read. I only wished there had been more descriptions of Rio de Janeiro as, other than the names of the streets, the story could have taken place anywhere. I'm a little undecided about the main character, but I do like that he sometimes just checks out from everything and goes show more book-shopping, so I will soon continue with the next book in the series. show less

Boring and mundane typify Inspector Espinosa's life, and the book is a lot like that. There were parts I liked, but ultimately the storyline was a bit twisted and weak. I dislike reading hundreds of pages before thrown into the last few pages, nay the last few seconds, there is a life or death countdown to a foregone conclusion. With all that was going on it was like the story ran out of steam. Tons and tons and tons of more-or-less irrelevant stuff happened, and then it was over. If there was something to recommend... I didn't discover what that might be.