City of Brick and Shadow

September 22, 2014
Unanswered questions hang wickedly in the air of Wirkus’s first novel. Elder Toronto and Elder Schwartz, two Mormon missionaries, roam the streets of Vila Barbosa, a Portuguese-speaking slum somewhere in what must be Brazil, in search of Marco Aurélio, a recent convert of theirs who has disappeared. Meanwhile, a powerful man referred to as the Argentine wields an omniscient, violent, yet strangely undefined grip over Vila Barbosa’s inhabitants. Aurélio’s fascinating backstory propels the plot just as its momentum
begins to wilt. The banter between the two young Mormons serves to lighten the mood, as do descriptions of the tropical locale. A dangerous game of some kind seems to be in the works, though figuring out what that game is may leave some readers scratching their heads with the not unwelcome sense that they, too, have been played. Agent: Yishai Seidman, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

Starred review from November 1, 2014
Young Mormon missionary Mike Schwartz feels doubly cursed when he's reassigned to So Paulo's dangerous Vila Barbosa neighborhood and partnered with know-it-all Elder John Toronto. His new ward has been stagnant for years, and the latest ray of hope is the new baptism of mysterious, charismatic Marco Aur'lio. Inexplicably, Marco goes missing shortly after his baptism, and Elder Toronto convinces Schwartz that neither the police nor church leaders are motivated to find him. So the pair begins to track Marco through Vila Barbosa's slums, powered by Toronto's intricate, irrefutable logic models and Schwartz's ethical center. After tangling with Marco's brutish brother and street-savvy estranged wife and then stumbling upon the body of an investigator connected to Marco, Toronto's conviction that their new recruit is in danger evolves into an all-consuming obsession. But the revelation of Marco's con-man past and the malicious shadow of the neighborhood boss known only as the Argentine places the pair in dangerously unfamiliar territory, asking questions the police and the underworld don't want answered. The story's circular construction is intricate, but the narrative flows simply through personal stories interspersed with the fascinating, sometimes surrealistic folklore describing the Argentine's reign in Vila Barbosa. Wirkus' twisted tale of cons is an absorbing mental exercise that's opaque enough for the most jaded armchair detectives and is guaranteed to spark delicious book-group debates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)