Book 1

The first in a stunning new literary crime series featuring Detective Espinoza of the Rio de Janeiro Police Department.A handsome young businessman is found dead in downtown Rio, a suicide who left no note, who had everything to live for. But by the time the police are called, all traces of the man's identity and the weapon have been removed. Then as Detective Espinosa discovers that the man moved in the upper echelons of Rio society, and meets his beguiling and remarkable wife, clues to the way he lived and how he died lead Espinosa tantalisingly close to the truth. But is he on the right track?

Book 2

December Heat

by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

Published 9 June 2003

A Rio de Janeiro Thriller

A retired policeman spends a typically alcohol-filled evening with his girlfriend, a prostitute. When he wakes up the next morning, his wallet and car key are missing, his girlfriend has been murdered, and he can remember none of the events of the previous night. Inspector Espinosa, veteran detective and friend of the ex-cop, is convinced there's more here than meets the eye, and when other bodies begin turning up, he finds himself not only racing after a killer but falling in love.


Book 3

Chief of the Copacabana precinct Espinosa is more than happy to interrupt his paperwork when a terrified young man arrives at the station with a bizarre story. A psychic has predicted that he will commit a murder, and the prediction has become fact in the young man's mind. It's a case more appropriate for a psychiatrist or philosopher, but there is something that attracts Espinosa to this case. As the weather changes and the southwesterly wind - always a sign of dramatic change - starts up, what at first seems like paranoia becomes brutal reality. Two violent murders occur and their only link is the lonely, clever man who has sort Espinosa out a few days earlier for help.

Book 4


Book 5

Pursuit

by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

Published 24 January 2006

Book 6

Blackout

by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

Published 5 August 2008
Chief Inspector Espinosa can't shake thoughts of this latest hapless victim. Who would target a penniless man who posed no physical threat? Focusing his inquiry on a group of wealthy guests who dined at a nearby mansion on the night of the murder, Espinosa carefully interrogates his way into the lives of his suspects, exposing another murder that will shatter this corner of Rio's high society.

Book 7

An elderly lady approaches the front desk at the Twelfth Precinct in Copacabana and demands to speak with the chief. Tired after a long day, she leaves without further explanation, promising to return. Two hours later, Dona Laureta is dead, and witnesses' accounts vary as to whether she was pushed or fell in front of the bus that killed her on one of the busiest avenues in the city. Veteran police chief inspector Espinosa quickly pinpoints a suspect in Hugo Breno, an unassuming bank teller whose solitary existence takes on a sinister cast as he shadows the inspector's movements across the city. Meanwhile Espinosa discovers an unsettling connection from the past between himself and Breno, and must turn his trademark psychological inquiry inward to determine how murky memories of a murder from long ago might play into Dona Laureta's untimely passing.