Pursuit

January 2, 2006
The subtlety and nuance that have won Brazilian author Garcia-Roza much acclaim are sadly absent in his fifth Inspector Espinosa mystery (after 2005's A Window in Copacabana). The austere translation makes it difficult to distinguish the voices of Rio cop Espinosa and his colleagues, Ramiro and Welber, as they untangle the complicated stories of psychiatrist Artur Nesse; Nesse's wife, Teresa; and their teenage daughters, Letícia and Roberta. Nesse's family seems to lead a fairly straightforward life until a patient of his, Isidoro Cruz, seduces Letícia. Nesse has them both hospitalized, claiming that Cruz is psychotic and Letícia has suffered a breakdown. When Roberta disappears and Teresa is found dead on a sidewalk bench, the police must unravel a long and confusing chain of events to understand what crimes have been committed and by whom. Little character development takes place against this dark backdrop, though we do learn more about Welber than in previous books, and in the end, with many questions deemed unanswerable, the whole thing seems an exercise in frustration as much for the reader as for Espinosa and his crew.