The Foreign Girls

Olguín’s stunning sequel to 2019’s The Fragility of Bodies finds Buenos Aires reporter Verónica Rosenthal vacationing in the province of Tucumán, where she ends up traveling with two young women she meets from abroad, Italian Petra and Norwegian Frida. At one point, the three attend a party they’re invited to in a small town. Verónica leaves the party with an attractive man without telling her new friends, and decides to resume traveling on her own. Days later, she learns that Petra and Frida have been raped and murdered, and resolves to find their killers. Meanwhile, a hit man is threatening Verónica, and Federico Córdova, her powerful lawyer father’s protégé, arrives in Tucumán to protect her. Federico also rescues some local officials from arrest in a drug-smuggling case, which Verónica later ties to Petra and Frida’s murders. The clash between Federico’s doomed desire for a romantic relationship with Verónica and her quest for revenge adds emotional tension. Olguín exposes copious examples of moral bankruptcy en route to the devastating ending. Readers will eagerly anticipate the third and final volume. (Mar.)