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Chief Inspector Mario Silva #3
Dying Gasp
A detective follows a missing girl into the jungles of Brazil—and uncovers a terrifying criminal conspiracy—in this “fast-paced” police procedural (Booklist). The Brazilian federal police wouldn’t typically get involved in the case of missing teenage girl—but when the girl in question is the granddaughter of a prominent politician, Silva and his team are, of course, put on her trail. It leads them to Manaus, a jungle hellhole in the Amazon. All sorts of unsavory characters can be found in the seedier corners of this South American country—and as Silva investigates, he finds troubling connections to human trafficking and snuff films. Now Silva must battle indifference, of both the ordinary and the depraved kind, to save those he can save, and find some semblance of justice for the others.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 11, 2009
15 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
About the author
Leighton Gage
15 books87 followersDied July 27th, 2013
Leighton Gage writes the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series, crime novels set in Brazil. He and his Brazilian-born wife divide their time between their home in Brazil and those of their children and grandchildren in Europe and the U.S.
Praise for the Chief Inspector:
Hard-hitting, atmospheric…. Despite their social conscience and ambitious reach, there's nothing stiff or programmatic about Mr. Gage's lively, action-filled chronicles. They have finely sketched characters, vivid geographical detail and their own brutal sort of humor. The vast size of Brazil, with its great economic and topographic differences, affords a diversity of locales. Each book is a bit of adventure-travel, with Silva and crew often feeling like tourists within their own country. Yet the Silva investigations have all the step-by-step excitement of a world-class procedural series…. The books' greatest appeal, though, is Silva. Even after five books and many glimpses into his past and present, he remains an enigma. The reader never knows what the detective might or might not do in order to balance the scales of justice. The Wall Street Journal
South America’s Kurt Wallander - Booklist
Top notch...controversial and entirely absorbing...irresistible -
The New York Times
Masterful - The Toronto Globe and Mail
Compelling - The Boston Globe
Fascinating, complex and riveting - Florida Sun Sentinel
Intelligent and subtle…suspenseful and sophisticated - Publisher’s Weekly
Highly recommended - Library Journal
Colorful characters and crackling banter - Kirkus Reviews
Leighton Gage writes the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series, crime novels set in Brazil. He and his Brazilian-born wife divide their time between their home in Brazil and those of their children and grandchildren in Europe and the U.S.
Praise for the Chief Inspector:
Hard-hitting, atmospheric…. Despite their social conscience and ambitious reach, there's nothing stiff or programmatic about Mr. Gage's lively, action-filled chronicles. They have finely sketched characters, vivid geographical detail and their own brutal sort of humor. The vast size of Brazil, with its great economic and topographic differences, affords a diversity of locales. Each book is a bit of adventure-travel, with Silva and crew often feeling like tourists within their own country. Yet the Silva investigations have all the step-by-step excitement of a world-class procedural series…. The books' greatest appeal, though, is Silva. Even after five books and many glimpses into his past and present, he remains an enigma. The reader never knows what the detective might or might not do in order to balance the scales of justice. The Wall Street Journal
South America’s Kurt Wallander - Booklist
Top notch...controversial and entirely absorbing...irresistible -
The New York Times
Masterful - The Toronto Globe and Mail
Compelling - The Boston Globe
Fascinating, complex and riveting - Florida Sun Sentinel
Intelligent and subtle…suspenseful and sophisticated - Publisher’s Weekly
Highly recommended - Library Journal
Colorful characters and crackling banter - Kirkus Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 2, 2010
I really dislike reading a series out of order. When I ordered this book in from my local library, I didn’t actually realise it was part of a series, I just requested it because it was set in South America and I needed novels set there for my 2010 Global Challenge. I was a few people down the list and when it finally was held for me, I had to go away straight after for 2wks so I finally got around to completing it today. It’s novel #3 in the Mario Silva series and I get the feeling that I really should’ve read at least one of the prior novels to really get a lot of the subtle undercurrents in this novel. My library doesn’t have any more of the novels but I did enjoy the crafting of this one so I am quite tempted to track them down.
The novel opens in the Netherlands, where a terrorist organisation has just bombed a tram and caught a postal truck as collateral damage, scattering mail everywhere. In an attempt to round up the undamaged mail and get it delivered to the good citizens, a collection of dvd’s mailed singularly in packages are found. One diligent postal worker takes one home to view (they have no dvd player where he works, everyone seems rather stuck back in VHS land and actually even Beta video players are mentioned and I haven’t seen one of them kicking around since about 1993) to see if he can perhaps identify where it came from/where it was going. He will probably come to regret that decision for the rest of his life as what you see can never be unseen. It’s a genuine snuff video and the European policing takes them right back to Brazil and Mario Silva who is currently slumming it investigating the disappearance of a 15yo girl who is the granddaughter of a prominent man, Deputado Roberto Malan, who helps decide on the budget. He will agree to look favourably on their budget proposal if Silva and Co track down his granddaughter who has run off with her lesbian lover (again) which has the potential to cause some embarrassment in a wealthy and oppressively conservative society. If society catches wind of the girl running away they may start to question why she has run away and scrutiny will be placed upon the house of the Deputado. In a place where wealthy old families call the shots and rule towns and cities, power is important and knowledge can be power.
In the Netherlands, the diligent police have tracked down some distributors of the snuff dvd’s and they start singing like canaries. It becomes clear that the dvd’s are originating in Brazil and when Silva views the dvd he is stunned. The girl in the snuff film is Marta Malan’s girlfriend and fellow runaway. They have been picked up and tricked into thinking that their ‘rescuers’ had jobs for them when really all that was intended for them was prostitution. Marta is young enough (and still a virgin as far as men are concerned) to be of interest but Andrea is older. And not a virgin. So she’s sold on by the pimp and meets her end in the snuff video. It isn’t long until Silva realises that an old foe who escaped him last time is connected and this time he’s determined that she won’t get away.
This is my first real foray into South American crime fiction. It’s not the first to tackle snuff films and this book doesn’t really focus so much on the victims individually, rather profiling a whole town, so poor that those willing to do anything for a bit of cash are easily found. Girls as young as 10 are being prostituted blatantly under the eyes of the local police force (and in face some of the local police force may be the brothel’s best customers) and hardened criminals can be found in any corner of the slums who are willing to slit a throat, chop off a head with an ax or strangle a prostitute all for a bit of money. The Brazil painted in this novel is not a pleasant one – it’s gritty, bleak, poor and riddled with corruption and crime. The underage prostitution in particular was shocking, the way it was conducted so openly and matter-of-factly and the high demand for it.
Mario Silva is a interesting one. In this novel we learn that he and his wife had one child who they lost to leukemia at age 8 and that his wife Irene drinks heavily, until she is comatose most nights. But despite this pretty personal and important information, this book doesn’t really tell me much else about Silva, other than he is extremely good at his job and smart in the way of most cop protagonists in that they avoid bullets, sniff out set ups, take down baddies without a blink and still find the time to be ice cool and/or witty. I don’t particularly know what sort of man he is at his core: what he likes, what he doesn’t like (apart from murderers, rapists and pedophiles, but that’s generally a given in these novels) and I’d really like the opportunity to learn more. I enjoyed his relationships with his colleagues, although very little was devoted to his personal life I got the feeling that he cared very much for his wife but not that he was particularly pained by her coping mechanism.
In a rather strange paradox what I would’ve usually disliked about a novel like this (the lack of personal details, etc) I enjoyed in this novel. The story itself, although disturbing and sickening, was low in the details so that you got the severity and understood the sickness but you weren’t bogged down by gratuitous descriptions and needless exploitation. Despite the subtleness and often understated tone of writing, there was a really ballsy part towards the end of a story that drew my admiration. It’s a brave move to devote so much time to a character and then sever that.
I think I’d have enjoyed this novel even more if I read the 2 previous. There’s a 4th novel also now and I’m adding all of them to my ‘to be purchased’ list.
The novel opens in the Netherlands, where a terrorist organisation has just bombed a tram and caught a postal truck as collateral damage, scattering mail everywhere. In an attempt to round up the undamaged mail and get it delivered to the good citizens, a collection of dvd’s mailed singularly in packages are found. One diligent postal worker takes one home to view (they have no dvd player where he works, everyone seems rather stuck back in VHS land and actually even Beta video players are mentioned and I haven’t seen one of them kicking around since about 1993) to see if he can perhaps identify where it came from/where it was going. He will probably come to regret that decision for the rest of his life as what you see can never be unseen. It’s a genuine snuff video and the European policing takes them right back to Brazil and Mario Silva who is currently slumming it investigating the disappearance of a 15yo girl who is the granddaughter of a prominent man, Deputado Roberto Malan, who helps decide on the budget. He will agree to look favourably on their budget proposal if Silva and Co track down his granddaughter who has run off with her lesbian lover (again) which has the potential to cause some embarrassment in a wealthy and oppressively conservative society. If society catches wind of the girl running away they may start to question why she has run away and scrutiny will be placed upon the house of the Deputado. In a place where wealthy old families call the shots and rule towns and cities, power is important and knowledge can be power.
In the Netherlands, the diligent police have tracked down some distributors of the snuff dvd’s and they start singing like canaries. It becomes clear that the dvd’s are originating in Brazil and when Silva views the dvd he is stunned. The girl in the snuff film is Marta Malan’s girlfriend and fellow runaway. They have been picked up and tricked into thinking that their ‘rescuers’ had jobs for them when really all that was intended for them was prostitution. Marta is young enough (and still a virgin as far as men are concerned) to be of interest but Andrea is older. And not a virgin. So she’s sold on by the pimp and meets her end in the snuff video. It isn’t long until Silva realises that an old foe who escaped him last time is connected and this time he’s determined that she won’t get away.
This is my first real foray into South American crime fiction. It’s not the first to tackle snuff films and this book doesn’t really focus so much on the victims individually, rather profiling a whole town, so poor that those willing to do anything for a bit of cash are easily found. Girls as young as 10 are being prostituted blatantly under the eyes of the local police force (and in face some of the local police force may be the brothel’s best customers) and hardened criminals can be found in any corner of the slums who are willing to slit a throat, chop off a head with an ax or strangle a prostitute all for a bit of money. The Brazil painted in this novel is not a pleasant one – it’s gritty, bleak, poor and riddled with corruption and crime. The underage prostitution in particular was shocking, the way it was conducted so openly and matter-of-factly and the high demand for it.
Mario Silva is a interesting one. In this novel we learn that he and his wife had one child who they lost to leukemia at age 8 and that his wife Irene drinks heavily, until she is comatose most nights. But despite this pretty personal and important information, this book doesn’t really tell me much else about Silva, other than he is extremely good at his job and smart in the way of most cop protagonists in that they avoid bullets, sniff out set ups, take down baddies without a blink and still find the time to be ice cool and/or witty. I don’t particularly know what sort of man he is at his core: what he likes, what he doesn’t like (apart from murderers, rapists and pedophiles, but that’s generally a given in these novels) and I’d really like the opportunity to learn more. I enjoyed his relationships with his colleagues, although very little was devoted to his personal life I got the feeling that he cared very much for his wife but not that he was particularly pained by her coping mechanism.
In a rather strange paradox what I would’ve usually disliked about a novel like this (the lack of personal details, etc) I enjoyed in this novel. The story itself, although disturbing and sickening, was low in the details so that you got the severity and understood the sickness but you weren’t bogged down by gratuitous descriptions and needless exploitation. Despite the subtleness and often understated tone of writing, there was a really ballsy part towards the end of a story that drew my admiration. It’s a brave move to devote so much time to a character and then sever that.
I think I’d have enjoyed this novel even more if I read the 2 previous. There’s a 4th novel also now and I’m adding all of them to my ‘to be purchased’ list.
November 19, 2018
Lekker vlot geschrven, leuk om efkes snel door te lezen. Geen WOAW , geen verassingen.
March 16, 2011
This series of books is really great & this volume, once you get past the sickening subject matter of child prostitution, trafficking & snuff films, is a really good read.
Its an heartbreaking revelation in the Author's Note at the end of the book that this is based around some true events. For exsmple the following quote "...in Arapina, the "services" of girls as young as eight could be bought for ten Reais, about five American dollars." This quote nearly made me vomit, I mean literally. I have an eight year old daughter. I can't imagine what kind of sick individual would want to hurt her in this way.
I know these things happen, but sometimes we find it too hard to acknowledge & we stick our heads in the sand. In its way this book has raised awareness of an incredibly important issue & made me, for one, realise that we can't ignore these kids. They need our help & we MUST provide it in the best way we know how.
Its an heartbreaking revelation in the Author's Note at the end of the book that this is based around some true events. For exsmple the following quote "...in Arapina, the "services" of girls as young as eight could be bought for ten Reais, about five American dollars." This quote nearly made me vomit, I mean literally. I have an eight year old daughter. I can't imagine what kind of sick individual would want to hurt her in this way.
I know these things happen, but sometimes we find it too hard to acknowledge & we stick our heads in the sand. In its way this book has raised awareness of an incredibly important issue & made me, for one, realise that we can't ignore these kids. They need our help & we MUST provide it in the best way we know how.
January 23, 2017
Some say they're an urban legend; I suspect they're true. Snuff films. Leighton Gage’s Inspector Silva tackles a gory plot where a doctor is making these films deep in the Amazon and then selling them throughout Europe. Unfortunately, Silva must overcome his own department’s indifference and the corrupt local cops before he can obtain a semblance of justice for the young victims. A chilling page-turner, one of Gage’s best.
November 25, 2015
This book was really good, I basically couldn't put it down. It had a lot of twists and turns and just kept you in its grip. It would be five stars but I just didn't like some things about the ending.
August 25, 2017
Politically and socially relevant
Once again, Leighton Gage tackles the grisly hard truth about Brazil's corruption and exploitation. Mario Silva is one of the best modern detective s out there. This is a great read.
Once again, Leighton Gage tackles the grisly hard truth about Brazil's corruption and exploitation. Mario Silva is one of the best modern detective s out there. This is a great read.
April 14, 2020
I've been reading this series out of order. I read one book, liked it (can't remember which one now). Then I tried #1, didn't like that and wasn't going to continue. But I had already borrowed this one so I read it anyway and liked it.
Spoilers.
What I liked. The writing was easy to read and follow. The story line is also fairly simple. The chief inspector follows a snuff story. It leads to a major Brazilian politician's grand-daughter. It leads to a provincial town of Manaus where he's given the brush off by the local police chief. But he perseveres and continues to investigate a local under-aged prostitute pimp, the snuff film producer and police. The criminals continues to make major mistakes and chief inspector Silva pounces.
What I didn't like in the plot. I thought Silva should have asked for more help right away from the Feds to prevent the deaths from happening. That bit was a little bit unrealistic.
Apart from all that, the book also details the amount of corruption in Brazil, a major theme in the entire series. I have a feeling that any cagey policeman intent on solving crimes would have mentally worked around all that instead of being surprised by it. But no doubt, it's the author's plot device.
Overall, I like that the setting was well written, the characters were fairly well done. I'm already starting on #2.
Spoilers.
What I liked. The writing was easy to read and follow. The story line is also fairly simple. The chief inspector follows a snuff story. It leads to a major Brazilian politician's grand-daughter. It leads to a provincial town of Manaus where he's given the brush off by the local police chief. But he perseveres and continues to investigate a local under-aged prostitute pimp, the snuff film producer and police. The criminals continues to make major mistakes and chief inspector Silva pounces.
What I didn't like in the plot. I thought Silva should have asked for more help right away from the Feds to prevent the deaths from happening. That bit was a little bit unrealistic.
Apart from all that, the book also details the amount of corruption in Brazil, a major theme in the entire series. I have a feeling that any cagey policeman intent on solving crimes would have mentally worked around all that instead of being surprised by it. But no doubt, it's the author's plot device.
Overall, I like that the setting was well written, the characters were fairly well done. I'm already starting on #2.
January 8, 2026
#3 in the Inspector Mario Silva series. This was a very gruesome book and I didn’t realize just how gruesome it was going in. I enjoy this series and I enjoy Mario Silva, but this one was a bit over the top for me. The book is about child endangerment, child prostitution and a whole lot of other, very unsavoury topics. The ending, though, brought the book’s rating up to 3 1/2 stars for me. The ending was very well done and justice was served. It all begins when the teenage granddaughter of a political figure in Brazil is abducted from her home. The Deputado brought Mario Silva and his team in to try to find her. As in all the other Mario Silva books, the corruption in the Police Department and in the government of Brazil goes far beyond what you might even imagine. We meet some very vile characters in this book and I was very happy to see each of them get their just desserts. This is a great series if you like police procedurals that are definitely noir, and the setting makes the books rather unique as well. I will continue to read it, but will be prepared in advance before I start a book.
April 3, 2022
Chief Insp. Mario Silva does battle with not only criminals but also incompetence and corruption within the Brazilian bureaucracy. This is book 3 of 7 in this series. The case of a missing teenage girl normally wouldn't involve the Brazilian Federal Police, unless the girl, Marta Malan, is the granddaughter of Deputado Roberto Malan, a powerful politician. Marta's disappearance is tied to a kidnapping and to a vile but lucrative international trade in underage girls, prostitution, and the making and distribution of snuff films. The trail leads to Manaus—the worst city in Brazil for crooked cops, poverty, and crime. While Marta, resourceful and brave, tries to avoid her fate, Silva and his small team of top cops try to ferret out her whereabouts before it's too late. I really liked this book a lot.
January 27, 2018
Brutal.
February 26, 2025
A good story with horrible people.
January 26, 2026
These are so good. So gruesome and harrowing but impactful in the truth the story tells along the way.
May 30, 2011
This is the third book in the series, a captivating look at the child-prostitution trafficking in Brazil. The author was kind enough to offer me both this book and the second and I am very thankful. I truly enjoyed it.
The writing was as concise as the first one, but the story was even more thought out, the complex plot lines merging and weaving together in an almost seamless fashion. It was fast paced without being manic, and I for one, never found myself bored or confused.
The characters are the best part of these two books. The main character Mario Silva, is a quirky mix of charisma, sarcasm and intelligence, and the supporting detectives, or agents, provide plenty of comic relief in a book that could easily have become too depressing for the common reader. The villain, whose identity I will not reveal because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, is fantastic. I highly enjoyed following her/his (if I say the genre, it’s too easy) depraved plots.
What I enjoy most in these books is the clarity in the writing. There is no attempt to fool the reader, only to tell a story well. That to me, is refreshing.
The writing was as concise as the first one, but the story was even more thought out, the complex plot lines merging and weaving together in an almost seamless fashion. It was fast paced without being manic, and I for one, never found myself bored or confused.
The characters are the best part of these two books. The main character Mario Silva, is a quirky mix of charisma, sarcasm and intelligence, and the supporting detectives, or agents, provide plenty of comic relief in a book that could easily have become too depressing for the common reader. The villain, whose identity I will not reveal because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, is fantastic. I highly enjoyed following her/his (if I say the genre, it’s too easy) depraved plots.
What I enjoy most in these books is the clarity in the writing. There is no attempt to fool the reader, only to tell a story well. That to me, is refreshing.
March 25, 2010
Disturbing but compelling. Once you get past the idea of a book about snuff films and the violence that permeates the Amazon frontier the author seduces you with his masterful fast paced plot. Inspector Silva is in a race to find a girl and to locate an extraordinarily evil woman ( not like the ELO song for sure). It didn't end the way I thought it would either but there is another high body count-no surprise there. Silva is the master of the game. Condescending corrupt senior bureacrats think they're playing him as always but Silva gets the last laugh. These books certainly don't do tourism for Brazil any favors. They depict a society brimming with violence and corruption.
October 2, 2011
Four and a half. I enjoyed this dark mystery about the child trade and snuff videos. Of the first three Gage books, this one was the best and I look foward to reading the next. The author does a good job of giving you some historical facts about Brazil, but the best part is his description of the corruption of the local Brazilian police and the reasons for it. Mario Silva makes more of an appearance in this book than he did in the previous ones and Agente Nunez character keeps on growing and I like that.
February 19, 2012
I read Mr Gage's first three books in a span of two weeks, and I think I'm going to a take a short break from reading murder mysteries, before I'm accused of being bloody-thirsty and 'have a glutton for punishment'. A very short break, that is, as this happens to be one of my fav genres.
The graphic descriptions, blood-shed and bodies piling up in books do not bother me, if they come out as being realistic and justified. In the case of Mario Silva series, I think they are. I knew what I was getting into by following the investigations of the federal police in Brazil.
The graphic descriptions, blood-shed and bodies piling up in books do not bother me, if they come out as being realistic and justified. In the case of Mario Silva series, I think they are. I knew what I was getting into by following the investigations of the federal police in Brazil.
January 5, 2012
I understand what Gage is trying to do here. Underage sex trafficking is a real problem, and I have nothing against using fiction to expose problems in society. Gage has done it successfully in the past, but this one crosses my line in terms of graphic depictions of violence and sex. I don't think it was necessary or enhanced the book at all. Regretfully, I'm passing on the rest of the Silva books.
October 13, 2012
Good police procedural. Extraordinarily violent thematically as are all of his books that I have read, though this one is particularly notable given that the driving plot device involves filming snuff movies. That being said the author hews to plausibility in terms of outcomes and his sense of place (Brazil) rings true and different. Very readable.
Read
July 29, 2011I agree with the reviewer who states this is a formula book--but it is a well wrtiten one, and so while I would give the blanket advice of not becoming overly fond of the victim who appears to have a chance of making it in this author's books, because it just isn't so, they are good.
August 9, 2013
Fascinating to be back in Manaus--it was also setting for Patchett's State of wonder. Book made the evils of child prostitution real to me. It also helps that Chief Inspector silva is such an admirable and ethical policeman.
July 11, 2014
Snappy pace & familiar characters make this an easy read. Tiny, not really a spoiler -------------
But how can every Federal level crime in Brazil tie together with another current investigation?
LOL - I still enjoy this series quite a bit.
But how can every Federal level crime in Brazil tie together with another current investigation?
LOL - I still enjoy this series quite a bit.
May 18, 2010
good read but very disturbing
December 7, 2010
Topnotch.
September 20, 2010
Good writing...dark, seedy subject matter.
Read
January 4, 2011This book was really sick and twisted but it was a really good book and I couldn't put it down.
March 8, 2011
Entertaining and one of the somewhat more believable books in the series. It's surprising at times, gratifying at others, and sometimes maddening. Very enjoyable.
January 30, 2012
My favourite Gage.
February 3, 2012
kills the protag
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2012
A fast paced gripping read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews