The Sky Weeps for Me

Ramirez, who served as Nicaragua’s vice president under Daniel Ortega in the late 1980s, displays a gift for gritty and offbeat literary crime fiction in his English-language debut. It’s the early 21st century, and inspector Dolores Morales, who had lost a leg while fighting for the Sandinistas, now works a desk job in Managua for the National Police’s Office of Drug Investigations. Morales finds himself back in harm’s way after he becomes involved in a missing person case. An expensive yacht has been beached in a lagoon, and his colleagues suspect it was abandoned there by drug traffickers, and traces of blood are found on the vessel, indicating violence—possibly involving a woman whose business card was found in a book on deck and whose whereabouts are unknown. The shooting death of a witness who saw who was on the boat raises the stakes. The grimness of the inquiry is leavened by humor, mostly provided by an ambitious orderly in the department who poses as a cleaning lady in a casino linked to the case. Ramirez balances plot and setting well, creating atmospheric tension informed by the lingering legacy of the revolution. Fans of authors such as Claudia Piñeiro and Ernesto Mallo will want to take a look. (Oct.)