“When Raoni’s father was a boy, the tribe had numbered more than a hundred, but that was before a white man’s disease had reduced them by half.  In the years that followed, one girl after another had been born, but the girls didn’t stay; they married and moved on. It was the way of the Awana, the way of all the tribes. If the spirits saw fit to give them boys, the tribe grew; if girls, the tribe shrank. If it shrank too much, it died.
The Awana were doomed, they all knew it, but for the end to have come so suddenly was a horrible and unexpected blow.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (JAN 26, 2014)

Leighton Gage, who spent a great deal of his time in Brazil, used his extensive knowledge of the country’s political, economic, and social climate to create an outstanding series of police procedurals. His latest, The Ways of Evil Men, published posthumously, opens with a heartbreaking scene. Anati, a member of the Awana tribe who live in the rainforest, goes hunting with his eight-year-old son, Raoni. When the two return to their village they discover that all thirty-nine members of their tribe are dead. Who killed these men, women, and children? Jade Calmon, an employee of the federal government’s National Indian Foundation, will not stop asking questions until she learns the truth. Since the local law enforcement authorities have no love for the Awana, Jade is forced to pull strings in order to bring in the big guns: Mario Silva, Chief Inspector of the Brazilian Federal Police, Arnaldo Nunes, Silva’s partner, and a support team that includes other agents and an assistant medical examiner.

Why can’t the locals investigate this crime? The nearest town, Azevedo, is run by the Big Six, corrupt landowners (including the mayor) who have contempt for the Indians and covet their land. To insure that no one gets in their way, they have the parish priest, the head of the local police, and a so-called environmental watchdog on their payroll. Only incorruptible law enforcement professionals like Mario Silva can be trusted to apprehend the guilty parties. Silva travels to Azevedo, where he and his colleagues interview Osvaldo Neto and his wife, Amanda, the owners of the town’s only bar, restaurant, and hotel. Osvaldo is part Indian and has disdain for the bigots, liars, thieves, adulterers, and murderers who patronize his establishment. Fortunately, Silva is a tenacious detective who relishes a challenge. He will need to be clever, devious, and lucky to solve what will turn out to be a complex and ugly case.

The Ways of Evil Men is a hard-hitting and engrossing novel that lives up to its title. The villains (both male and female) are utterly vile. They frame the innocent, bribe people to turn a blind eye to their transgressions, and enrich themselves through legal and illegal means. Another person who takes an interest in these outrageous goings-on ia a fearless female reporter named Maura Mandel; she risks her life, expecting to make headlines with what she hopes will be a sensational story. This is a compelling, gritty, and atmospheric tale with lively descriptive writing, dark humor, and sharply-crafted dialogue. Readers will admire Silva and his associates, who are determined to prove that no one–no matter how wealthy, influential, and arrogant–is above the law.

Those of us who admire Leighton Gage’s talent, creativity, and integrity will miss him greatly.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 13 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (January 21, 2014)
REVIEWER:	Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Leighton Gage
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: Dying Gasp Every Bitter Thing Buried Strangers our interview with Leighton Gage

Bibliography:

• Blood of the Wicked (2008)
• Buried Strangers (2009)
• Dying Gasp (2010)
• Every Bitter Thing (2010)
• A Vine in the Blood (2011)
• Perfect Hatred (2013)
• The Ways of Evil Men (January 2014)

“They say they come here to see the river and the jungle,” the priest went on. “Sometimes it’s true. Mostly, it’s just sex tourism, pure and simple.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage (FEB 13, 2010)

The whispers and rumors of the existence of snuff films first appeared in western culture some decades ago. Since then, it’s been said that snuff films–real snuff films don’t exist–that they’re nothing more than urban myths. Common sense tells me that if a lucrative trade thrives in the international black market trafficking of human organs, then real snuff films must exist. And if there’s a market for snuff films, then what better place to make them than in a country in which the poor can disappear without a trace.

Author Leighton Gage’s third Chief Inspector Mario Silva mystery Dying Gasp centres on a Brazilian snuff film ring. I’ve read all three of Gage’s novels and while they tackled different social problems in Brazil, Dying Gasp is the darkest, grimmest to date. Given the subject matter, that shouldn’t be too surprising. If you haven’t tried the Mario Silva novels yet, and if you enjoy series detective novels with an international, social/political theme, then give Leighton Gage a try. His novels are a cut above most of the detective novels on the market.

Dying Gasp begins with the disappearance of two young girls. Women go missing every day in Brazil, but the difference this time is that one of the girls is Marta, the 15-year–old granddaughter of one of the country’s most powerful politicians. While the poor vanish silently into Brazil’s vast networks of crime, that doesn’t happen with Marta. Marta’s unpleasant grandfather, Deputado Roberto Malan, pulls strings until he gets Chief Inspector Mario Silva on the case. Malan considers Marta a “disrespectful little bitch,” but he’s under pressure from his son and daughter-in-law to find the girl. Marta was last seen with her 18-year-old girlfriend Andrea, and by the time Mario Silva is roped into the case, the girls have been missing for weeks, and the trail is now stone-cold.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam, a series of events leads to a break in the case of an international snuff film ring. As the search for the major players in the films that cater to the sick tastes of the wealthy widens to Brazil, Mario Silva realizes that his search for Marta is also connected to his search for the snuff film ring. Silva has reason to believe that Marta is being held captive in a bordello which specializes in underage girls, and in a race against time, Silva and trusted detectives Arnaldo and Hector Costa travel to Manaus, a hellhole in the heart of Amazonia. In Manaus, Silva must battle against corruption and also against his old enemy, the quintessentially evil Claudia Andrade (Buried Strangers).

Mario Silva, as an incorruptible police inspector must deal with all sorts of people–including his bosses and the “superiors” who turn his stomach. Silva negotiates a corrupt, sick world, a world that he cannot ultimately change but one in which he simply does the best he can.

In Dying Gasp Gage once again delivers a terrific mystery coupled with a tale that explores the many social problems of Brazil–a country plagued with crime and corruption, and with a vast divide between the poor and the wealthy. I first came across Gage through his second novel, Buried Strangers, a story in which Gage describes the social inequities of Brazil through a crime story involving organ trafficking. While many Brazilian crime films explore the life of Brazil’s poverty-wracked ghettos, Gage’s tales argue that the poor are often the tools of the rich–either through criminal enterprises, or simply as human husks to be utilized and harvested as unwilling donors for the wealthy. But Gage also shows the inescapable connections between the worst, most evil aspects of human exploitation and those wealthy enough to indulge in the results as recreational distractions–even as they kid themselves that their hands are clean. In Dying Gasp, Gage once again creates an edge-of-the-seat read, and through this dark tale, he reveals the intricate web between the rich and poor, the exploiters and the exploited and those who try to carve a niche for themselves in between these upper and lower echelons of Brazilian society.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 21 readers
PUBLISHER:	Soho Crime (January 1, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Leighton Gage
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Ways of Evil Men Every Bitter Thing Buried Strangers our interview with Leighton Gage

Bibliography:

• Blood of the Wicked (2008)
• Buried Strangers (2009)
• Dying Gasp (2010)
• Every Bitter Thing (2010)
• A Vine in the Blood (2011)
• Perfect Hatred (2013)
• The Ways of Evil Men (January 2014)