Betty Boo

At the start of this thought-provoking mystery from Piñeiro (A Crack in the Wall), maid Gladys Verela arrives at the Maravillosa Country Club, where industrialist Pedro Chazaretta has a house on the grounds. In the living room, Gladys spots Chazaretta sitting in a chair, apparently asleep, but in fact his throat has been slit. Lorenzo Rinaldi, the editor of the newspaper El Tribuno, approaches novelist Nurit Iscar, “the Dark Lady of Argentine literature” who’s known as Betty Boo, about covering Chazaretta’s murder. Nurit joins forces with an inexperienced young reporter, who’s disparagingly referred to only as Crime Boy, and Jaime Brena, a cynical veteran crime reporter who has been shunted off to the society desk. The members of this mismatched trio share insights and realize that several more deaths share a connection with Chazaretta’s. In Piñeiro’s artful hands, each of her investigators learns as much about himself or herself as about the murder on the way to the surprising, perfectly executed ending. [em](Feb.) [/em]