Buried Strangers: A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation »

Leighton Gage is married to a Brazilian woman and spends part of each year in Santana do Parnaiba, Brazil, and the rest of the year in Florida and The Netherlands. He is the author of two novels in the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series.

Chief Inspector Silva discovers a mass-murderer has filled clandestine cemeteries outside São Paulo with her victims.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Gage's intelligent and subtle second mystery to depict life in modern Brazil (after 2008's Blood of the Wicked), Yoshiro Tanaka, a corrupt local policeman, uncovers a secret cemetery in a park near Brasilia that contains more than three dozen corpses, including those of 24 children. Mario Silva, of the Brazilian Federal Police, has an uphill battle persuading his politically sensitive boss, Nelson Sampaio, that the find warrants federal resources. When forensics indicate that the dead were each missing a body part, Sampaio fears rumors that a satanic cult is responsible will harm the country's tourism industry. Tanaka, under pressure from his wife to bring in more money, dutifully tracks down clues identifying some of the dead people. When Tanaka's attempts to extort money backfire, Silva must pick up the pieces of his investigation. Lovers of suspenseful and sophisticated crime novels will be rewarded. (Jan.)

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