Blood Makes Noise

Rooted in fact, this impressive first novel from screenwriter Widen (Highlander; Backdraft) charts the astonishing journey of the corpse of Eva “Evita” Perón (1919–1952). Early in the morning of November 23, 1955, Michael Suslov, a junior CIA officer attached to the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, is summoned by Hector Cabanillas, Argentine éminence grise and government representative, to witness the removal of Evita’s body from the capital and into hiding. Less than a year later, Hector asks Michael to take the body out of Argentina to prevent Perónists from using it as a rallying point. After some personal misfortune, Michael manages to ship the corpse to Milan, where it’s laid to rest under a false name, but then Michael’s life swiftly unravels. Only when Hector reappears more than a decade later and asks Michael to return Evita to Argentina does Michael sense a chance of redemption. Widen’s atmospheric thriller, full of broken men in a broken country, succeeds in capturing the hold that Evita had over so many, even in death. (Apr.)