cover image Blackout in Precinct Puerto Rico

Blackout in Precinct Puerto Rico

Steven Torres. Minotaur Books, $24.99 (197pp) ISBN 978-0-312-32113-0

A heinous crime that rocks the small Puerto Rican town of Angustias scars far more than victim and perpetrator in Torress searing fifth Precinct Puerto Rico novel (after 2006s ""Missing in Precinct Puerto Rico""). When Luisa Ferré, a delicately beautiful high school girl, wakes up the town with her screams late one night, Sheriff Luis Gonzalo is the first to reach her on the street. At the town clinic, the naked, traumatized girl is treated for assault. Aided only by 70-year-old deputy Emilio Collazo, Gonzalo hunts for clues while Luisa remains silent and sedated, unable to describe her attacker. Luisas father, whom Collazo finds in a drunken stupor with bloody knuckles, becomes a prime suspect, though Torres is quick to tell the reader the man had nothing to do with his daughters injuries. Gonzalo struggles with a paucity of evidence and overwhelming emotions as the ripples of the crime reach every corner of Angustias. Fans of downbeat slice-of-life mysteries will be most rewarded. ""(Mar.)"" .