December Heat by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

 

December Heat is the second in a series of seven Inspector Espinosa mystery novels published by Picador and expertly translated by Benjamin Moser.

Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza draws readers deep into the unfolding drama from the opening pages. A street kid, using a discarded refrigerator box as his bed and home along Avenida Atlântica, wakes up late at night to witness an old drunken man getting into the passenger seat of a car. The old man is having trouble, wobbling so much that his wallet falls out between the sidewalk and the car. The car rumbles off. The kid waits a few moments before retrieving the wallet and returning to his box. He counts the money and then discovers a police ID among the cards. He's no fool—he keeps the money but tosses the wallet on the sidewalk and waits to see who will pick it up. It doesn't take long—a man plucks the wallet off the sidewalk. The kid doesn't like the looks of this man and decides to follow him to see what he'll do with the police ID.

“There had been a woman, but he didn't remember what happened to her. He was lying in his own bed in his underwear, the shirt he'd been wearing the day before, socks, no shoes. . . . He didn't remember driving home, just like he didn't remember the woman. It wasn't the first time this had happened. Alcoholic amnesia, they called it.” So reflects Vieira, a retired cop, the one who lost his wallet while climbing into the car. Shortly thereafter, Vieira receives a call from his old buddy Espinosa: something serious happened to the woman he was with last night, a prostitute by the name of Magali. The pair enter Magali's apartment, and Vieira shows visible disgust. Magali is dead, sprawled out on her bed, entirely nude, a plastic bag over her head, her arms tied to the headboard, and her legs tied together with a silk scarf attached to the foot of the bed with a leather belt—Vieira's leather belt.

Espinosa takes over the case. Although his older friend is the sole suspect, the inspector knows the retired policeman didn't murder Magali. And Vieira is keen to help with the investigation—just thinking about some insensitive brute killing the poor prostitute he was so fond of sets his emotions on fire. Tragically, Vieira's lost wallet sparks a string of violence and murders revolving around drug trafficking. It also brings Espinosa into contact with that street kid, which, in turn, leads him to the world of kids struggling to survive on the streets of Rio.



The inclusion of the street kids underscores a key theme in the Brazilian author's novels: the social and cultural dynamics that make Rio throb to its own unique rhythms. “During their meeting, before they had lost him, the boy had mentioned a building on the Avenida Copacabana, between Rua Santa Clara and Rua Siqueira Campos, with a shop on the ground floor and a small entryway bordering the next building.” At each stage of the tale, we're right there at specifically named city locations, all taking place in the weeks preceding Christmas, one of the hottest times of the year in Rio.

If you are looking for police procedurals like those found in Henning Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander novels or the blood, guts, and gore in The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy by French author Pierre Lemaitre, I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere. The artful literary works of Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza focus primarily on highly distinctive women and men. Here's a December Heat sampling:

Florinda - A very successful prostitute, “Flor had everything to succeed in the profession—beauty, sensuality, and charm—in just the right proportions.” Following Magali's death, when Flor meets Vieira at Magali's apartment building, she dissolves into tears and tells him directly that she and Magali were like sisters. And since Magali always said she had a debt of gratitude toward Vieira (some time back, Vieira took care of a pimp who threatened to kill Magali), the debt of gratitude has shifted and now belongs to her. Flor—a slender black girl with firm muscles who looks almost Thai—adds an erotic charge to the tale. Espinosa on Flor: “She wasn't extraordinarily beautiful, but her beauty did turn the heads of men and women, perhaps because it wasn't created only from the usual elements of beauty. In her beauty, there was something demonic. The result was more alchemical than aesthetic, and its effect was uncommon.”

Cristina - One of the Rio artists who sells her paintings on the island dividing the lanes of traffic on Avenida Atlântica, a young, luscious beauty with long black hair, Christina signs her paintings "Kika," and that's what everyone calls her. Kika is drawn into the case by way of a street kid seeking help. Kika studied painting at the School of Fine Art and is more than happy to share her opinions on her favorite painters and anything related to art and aesthetics. Espinosa on this lovely painter: “Kika looked like a strike of lightning in the middle of the night, fascinating and disturbing.” Cristina, aka Kika, adds a second erotic charge to the tale. Correction, make that a super-erotic charge.



Espinosa - It shouldn't come as a surprise that Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, a philosophy professor for many years, created his main character, a police inspector, as an outsider—an independent maverick, a bookish loner who is also a romantic and joyful sensualist. At the moment, Espinosa is trying to read Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, but he's having issues. “But it still wasn't time to enter the world of Tuan Jim: he couldn't concentrate on the words; images of Kika and the boy kept invading the story. Joseph Conrad deserved a more attentive reader. He put the book aside for another, better occasion.” My guess is Kika's curvaceous image dominates the inspector's imagination. Perhaps Espinosa even envisions Kika making an appearance at his elegant third-floor apartment, an apartment in scenic Copacabana he inherited from his parents, where he's currently living by himself.

Espinosa must deal with the December crowds as he moves through Rio in his attempt to crack this complex case. Not easy. And it is so darned hot. I encourage you to pick up December Heat and join him to find out how it all turns out.




Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, 1936-2020