Death in Precinct Puerto Rico

April 21, 2003
Set in the remote town of Angustias, Puerto Rico, where the local police are derogatorily nicknamed gandules
(greenbeans) by their metropolitan peers, Torres's follow-up to last year's series debut provides more fast-paced, nonstop action. Sheriff Luis Gonzalo faces the murder case of his career. Habituated to the routine assignments of provincial life, Gonzalo has always wished for something more exciting, more demanding. And now that a close friend, the young abused mother of a newborn, is brutally stabbed to death in her house, his yearning has unfortunately been realized. What begins as a seemingly open-and-shut case becomes intensely complicated. Gonzalo and his deputies comb the increasing number of crime scenes for evidence to indict first one, then another and ultimately many more evil perpetrators. The novel, however, sometimes moves almost too quickly, and the sheriff's ability to ferret out the truth from the mass of tenuous and nebulous threads linking it all together appears farfetched. The tangled crime web unravels almost seamlessly in the duration of less than a day's work. Still, Torres's portrait of a most eclectic group of Puerto Ricans should particularly satisfy those readers interested in a culture that hitherto hasn't received much attention in mystery fiction.

May 1, 2003
Sheriff Luis Gonzalo takes a new mother and baby back to her abusive husband in little Angustias, Puerto Rico, aware of her bad situation. She plans divorce but winds up dead that same day. A welcome second helping of crazy characters, unique situations, and an unusual protagonist.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2003
Elena Maldonado arrived home from the hospital after giving birth to her first child. Within hours she was dead. Luis Gonzalo, sheriff of Augustias, a rural Puerto Rican village, initially assumes the killer was Elena's volatile husband, Marcos. As the case develops, however, Gonzalo learns that Elena may have had a boyfriend and that Marcos may not have been the father of the child. More bloodshed follows when Elena's father takes his own life after attacking Marcos. Gonzalo has seen a lot of blood in the last few days, but as he untangles the case, he finds its origins predate the lives of today's victims, and its effects will extend far into the future as Elena's orphaned son makes his mark in the world. The second Precinct Puerto Rico novel offers a revealing and realistic examination of a society that, although similar to the U.S. on the surface, possesses its own customs, rhythms, and politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)