Book Review: December Heat by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

December Heat

Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

Translator Benjamin Moser

First published in Portuguese 1998; first published in English 2005.

In the winter heat of Rio de Janeiro, a young homeless boy witnesses an insensible drunk being helped into a car outside a restaurant late at night. From his precious cardboard box, the boy watches as the man is wedged into his car by a woman and the restaurant’s doorman – tantalisingly, he sees a wallet sticking out of the drunk’s pocket. Unobserved in the chaos, he manages to snatch it. After the car drives off, he investigates his spoils but sees that the wallet contains a policeman’s ID. Terrified, the boy takes the cash and drops the wallet back in the gutter. He waits to see who will pick it up.

Later, retired cop Viera wakes up with a dreadful hangover and a severe memory lapse. Realizing his wallet has gone, he’s annoyed about the loss of his police ID card more than anything, as he’s been using it since he retired and can’t get another one.  He vaguely remembers that he went out the previous evening with his girlfriend Magali. He assumes that she has dropped him home and gone back to her own flat, so goes there to ask if she has his wallet. She is out, so he leaves his card. After returning to his apartment the phone rings. It is Inspector Espinosa, who has been called out to the scene of a murder – Magali’s. Espinosa’s only lead is Viera’s card.

The first half of this novel is a totally absorbing story of Espinosa’s teasing out of events before and after the crime. He soon discovers the existence of the homeless boy, and manages to make brief contact with him via a “street teacher” Clodorado. The boy is terrified though, as life on the streets is cheap and he has every reason to believe he is in danger.

As in the first novel in which he appears, Espinosa spends much  of this novel torn between two women, this time they are Flor, a prostitute who was Magali’s best friend and who takes up with Viera; and Kiki, a young artist who sells her paintings at a road junction and is a witness in the case. Espinosa’s musings over the two women are far less interesting than the case itself, which gradually unravels against a sympathetic and harrowing background of the many poor people struggling to survive in this huge city. About half way through the novel, Espinosa and Viera run out of leads, and for the rest of it, Espinosa is either searching for the same few people, or just missing them (this book was written at a time when communication was by answering machine not mobile phone), or pondering on the appeal of the two very different women characters. Perhaps I found this last aspect a little tiresome as Espinosa spent the previous novel, The Silence of the Rain, similarly torn between two women – neither of whom is mentioned here.

At the end, Espinosa does work out what is happening, but in a curiously detached way, separate from any organised investigation. There are various leads which are not followed up with any vigour, and the explanation, when it comes, is too full of supposition to be very satisfactory. Even so, the novel is an extremely atmospheric depiction of life in Rio de Janeiro which I very much enjoyed reading, despite its slight failings as a convincing crime novel. The perspective of the street people and of those struggling to escape the slums and shanty dwellings to make something of themselves are particularly moving. The translation seems sympathetic, but is in US, not English, English.

I purchased a second-hand copy of the Picador edition of this book.

Read my review of the first in the series, The Silence of the Rain.

Read other reviews of December Heat at: The Bookworm Wannabe (review in English of the original Portuguese version) and  January Magazine, 

The Silence of the Rain has also been reviewed at: Mysteries in Paradise and The View from the Blue House.

Southwesterly Wind, the third in the series, was recently reviewed at Reactions to Reading. 

Comments

[Margot Kinberg]

Maxine - Thanks for this excellent review! I really like the word you chose - atmospheric. I think it does describe the way Garcia-Roza writes. And I agree that he does not spare the reader when it comes to what life is really like in Rio de Janeiro. It's interesting, I think, how an author can make up for some kinds of weaknesses by using the strength of character, atmosphere, or something else. Oh, and interesting comment on the translation, too!

[Maxine]

Thanks, Margot - it is true that this author writes very attractive books, even if the crime plot is a bit unrealistic. He seems to have a big heart.

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I will put this book on my 2011 global challenge list. Looks good; one great thing about books is you can virtually travel to a country and sense the story of the city and the country. It sounds like Rio de Janeiro is a character in this book, in that the sense of place plays a major role. A good thing. It's on my list. Thanks for this perceptive, good review.

[Dorte H]

The plot idea seems fine. A pity that the story did not live up to your expectations on other scores. And with regard to the two women, I said to Ole last night that in a modern series, you have to have some unhappy relationships. Marital bliss doesn´t sell.

[Bernadette]

I really enjoyed the book of this author's that I read for the global challenge so shall put this one on the wishlist, though I am making my anual attempt to get my TBR piles under control just now and am trying desperately not to actually go out and buy anything for a while at least.