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Delegado Espinosa #3
Vento Sudoeste
So palpable is the role of loneliness in Southwesterly Wind, the third installment of Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza's seductive police-procedural series, that it almost deserves a separate listing among the cast. Nobody here escapes its casual ravages. Certainly not Gabriel, a 29-year-old office drone in Rio de Janeiro who still lives with his religious-fanatic mother, fears intimate association with younger women, and might well have remained a societal cipher had he not been the recipient of a most dubious prediction: "A psychic saw that I would commit a murder before my next birthday. There's less than two months to go," he explains to Sergeant Espinosa of the Copacabana precinct. It would of course be absurd to launch an investigation into a slaying that hasn't occurred yet to a victim who isn't known. However, the compassionate Espinosa at least puts a police tail on the would-be killer, and he interviews one of his fellow workers, Olga Marins, who witnessed the misfortune-telling and looks increasingly to Gabriel as the remedy for her own solitude. Espinosa even tracks down the psychic reader responsible for setting these events in motion--an economist-turned-entertainer who's oblivious to the damage his auguries might cause a troubled mind. With Gabriel's birthday fast approaching, and people perishing around this paranoid and soon-to-be armed young man, it falls to Espinosa to identify the real murderer and discover the startling truth behind Gabriel's "craziness."
As he did in The Silence of the Rain and December Heat, the divorced and bookish Espinosa acts in this tale greatly from instinct and emotion, his heart keenly on view as he pursues a winsome but elusive girlfriend of Olga's and indulges a precocious teenage neighbor who thinks him in desperate need of canine companionship. Garcia-Roza glosses over the violence for which Rio's cops are known, preferring a more romantic conception of Espinosa and his colleagues that allows the author to focus on the psychology of his inexpert criminals. With its lucid prose and loving portrayal of Brazil's largest city, Southwesterly Wind is crime fiction for the connoisseur--as thoughtful as it is thrilling, and displaying more intriguing loose ends than the thongs of Ipanema. --J. Kingston Pierce
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
26 books107 followersLuiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza is a Professor of Philosophy at Rio University in Brazil.
Series:
* Inspector Espinosa
Series:
* Inspector Espinosa
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
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December 27, 2024
Peculiar. Very, very peculiar.
Mystery novels featuring a detective nearly always begin with a murder. The detective is called to the scene of the crime and the tale takes off from there.
With Southwesterly Wind, things are quite different. On the first pages, a thirty-year-old man by the name of Gabriel meets with Inspector Espinosa to impart what he considers a shattering piece of information: he was told by a psychic at his birthday party that before his next birthday he would commit murder. He has two months to go and he's frantic. He tells Espinosa he desperately needs his help.
Not long thereafter, two brutal murders are committed. The victims have a direct connection with Gabriel, but Espinosa knows it is highly unlikely this passive, eccentric young man is responsible.
Several chapters in, we have a good idea who's the murderer. We as readers know more than Espinosa and the police and others in the tale since Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza shifts the narrative back and forth between characters, which is quite different than the usual detective yarn. I can appreciate literary critic Maureen Corrigan's observation, “One of the pleasures of reading Garcia-Roza derives from watching how he thwarts our narrative experiences. Throughout Soutwesterly Wind, he shuffles and reshuffles a limited deck of secondary characters to assemble startling patters.”
Yet again another joy in reading a Garcia-Rosa novel: we're provided with many colorful details of Rio de Janeiro's streets and beaches, hotels and apartments, restaurants and cafés, along with the women, men, and children who live in this unique city. “The beachfront streets in the Zona Sul were being battered by a strong soutwesterly wind. It had stirred up the sea and filled the sky with ragged clouds. The physical changes were remarkable, but there was another transformation in the spirit of the city's inhabitants, especially palpable in the beachside neighborhoods. The southwester was a harbinger of change.”
Likewise with the author's sociological observations revolving around Rio. “Robberies and murders were on the rise, but they weren't the main focus of police work. In a country marked by huge income disparities, the only real job of the police was to keep the Third World from invading the First.”
Additionally, the Brazilian author's vividly and sharply drawn characters add depth to the novel, especially since the focus is more on the interplay of individual personalities than on police procedures. Among others, we come to know Gabriel, Hidalgo the psychic, and two exceptionally attractive professional women—Olga and Irene.
"Irene glided smoothly along, head held high, sure that people would get out of her way." You bet people got out of her way. After all, Irene is an elegant Latina who would turn any man's head. And since Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza has much in common with his fellow countryman Rubem Fonseca, an author who doesn't shy away from sensuality and sexuality in his fiction, we shouldn't be surprised Espinosa eventually is treated to several rounds of luscious sex with luscious Irene as the first step in developing a more lasting relationship. Ah, this infusion of passion is in marked contrast to many thrillers where the detective tends to be puritanical, written by such as Jo Nesbø, Tana French, Arnaldur Indridason, and Henning Mankell.
Espinosa is a bookish man, a love for books instilled in him by his grandmother, who came to raise him at age ten after his parents died in an automobile crash. He loves to roam through Rio's bookshops, particularly used ones, and he has amassed hundreds of books, stored floor to ceiling in the apartment he inherited from his parents.
I've gone light, very light on plot. Much better for a reader to discover the psychology of the characters and the development of events while turning the pages. I'll conclude with Gabriel reflecting, "One's fellow man was not one's brother, as the Christians would have it. Man was the enemy. He felt like a lone wolf, walking with his eyes to the ground, his body hunched over, his shoulders rounded. He was threatened from every side, but he himself was also a threat." And, by the way, when Gabriel looks at the scantly clothed females on Rio's beaches, like the ones pictured above, he becomes frightened. The Brazilian author's strong academic background in philosophy and psychology is much in evidence.
What a novel. Garcia-Roza has expanded what it means to write a detective yarn. Don't miss it.
Brazilian author Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, 1936-2020
September 20, 2017
This in fact was the first crime/thriller novel I've ever read by a South American author. The booksellers' shelves here in New Zealand aren't exactly weighed down with translated South American crime fiction, but I was very pleased to spot this in Unity Books.
In SOUTHWESTERLY WIND, 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, it seems, and the prediction has become fact in the young man's mind. It's a case more appropriate for a psychiatrist or philosopher, but, rising to the challenge as usual, Espinosa slowly enters the web of a psychologically conflicted man. 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 sought Espinosa out a few days earlier for help.
I quite enjoyed this book, although it was a little slower-paced than most crime and thriller novels I read. In a way, the plot and story unfolds, unhurriedly - rather than racing along. I enjoyed Garcia-Roza's descriptions of Rio de Janeiro, a city I visited in early 2008, and it was quite an intriguing set-up, with the young man becoming increasingly erratic due to the paranoia and fear brought on by the pyschic's prediction. You wondered whether things might become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy because of this.
At times however, it felt like both the reader, and Espinosa himself, were just waiting to see what would eventually happen. The Police Chief, although an intriguing character, was pretty reactive - although that is probably quite authentic in a way. Rather than getting out there and doing much investigating, he often waited for things to happen, or the storyline of the book only moved forward once another character came to Espinosa with something. Perhaps that's being picky however. Garcia-Roza does a nice job of evoking Rio de Janeiro, and may be going for a 'realistic' version of the drudgery and procedure of police work. Although it wasn't particularly exciting, at times it was absorbing, and I was curious to know how things would unfold.
It was a good book, and I would read more of Garcia-Roza, although perhaps not race out and read him ahead of others on the TBR pile.
In SOUTHWESTERLY WIND, 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, it seems, and the prediction has become fact in the young man's mind. It's a case more appropriate for a psychiatrist or philosopher, but, rising to the challenge as usual, Espinosa slowly enters the web of a psychologically conflicted man. 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 sought Espinosa out a few days earlier for help.
I quite enjoyed this book, although it was a little slower-paced than most crime and thriller novels I read. In a way, the plot and story unfolds, unhurriedly - rather than racing along. I enjoyed Garcia-Roza's descriptions of Rio de Janeiro, a city I visited in early 2008, and it was quite an intriguing set-up, with the young man becoming increasingly erratic due to the paranoia and fear brought on by the pyschic's prediction. You wondered whether things might become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy because of this.
At times however, it felt like both the reader, and Espinosa himself, were just waiting to see what would eventually happen. The Police Chief, although an intriguing character, was pretty reactive - although that is probably quite authentic in a way. Rather than getting out there and doing much investigating, he often waited for things to happen, or the storyline of the book only moved forward once another character came to Espinosa with something. Perhaps that's being picky however. Garcia-Roza does a nice job of evoking Rio de Janeiro, and may be going for a 'realistic' version of the drudgery and procedure of police work. Although it wasn't particularly exciting, at times it was absorbing, and I was curious to know how things would unfold.
It was a good book, and I would read more of Garcia-Roza, although perhaps not race out and read him ahead of others on the TBR pile.
March 7, 2025
A story of how vulnerable misguided people wreak havic on their own lives. And in its wake drag other innocent people with them.
Or, a journey into the psyche of man and how it affect their actions at the peril of those around them.
A tragic case.
The world Espinosa, chief inspector in Rio de Janeiro, lives in, p.45: "In a country marked by huge income disparities, the only real job of the police was to keep the Third World from invading the First. Espinosa knew this; a few other colleagues knew it; the rest of the force was composed of people as shady as the ones they arrested, attacked and shook down."
Gabriel seems to be going insane. A psychic predicted that he would commit a murder before his next birthday. And the closer his birthday comes, the more paranoid he becomes. Espinosa's collegue Welber puts it like this: "I've never heard of anyone going to the police to report an uncommitted murder of an unknown person, especially when the person reporting the murder is the nonmurderer himself."
There you have it!
Espinosa does take Gabriel sort of serieus, but can of course do nothing, because nothing has happened!
He had his doubts: "the psychic unleashed the craziness he'd repressed. Now he's sure that he has a destiny he has to fulfill. He is coming to the police not for protection but for an alibi."
After two suspicious deaths occur, Espinosa has only one lead and that is Gabriel.
P.110 about Espinosa: "Well, I usually imagine rather than think. I spend most of my time daydreaming."
written: 1999.
Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza: 1936 - 2020.
Or, a journey into the psyche of man and how it affect their actions at the peril of those around them.
A tragic case.
The world Espinosa, chief inspector in Rio de Janeiro, lives in, p.45: "In a country marked by huge income disparities, the only real job of the police was to keep the Third World from invading the First. Espinosa knew this; a few other colleagues knew it; the rest of the force was composed of people as shady as the ones they arrested, attacked and shook down."
Gabriel seems to be going insane. A psychic predicted that he would commit a murder before his next birthday. And the closer his birthday comes, the more paranoid he becomes. Espinosa's collegue Welber puts it like this: "I've never heard of anyone going to the police to report an uncommitted murder of an unknown person, especially when the person reporting the murder is the nonmurderer himself."
There you have it!
Espinosa does take Gabriel sort of serieus, but can of course do nothing, because nothing has happened!
He had his doubts: "the psychic unleashed the craziness he'd repressed. Now he's sure that he has a destiny he has to fulfill. He is coming to the police not for protection but for an alibi."
After two suspicious deaths occur, Espinosa has only one lead and that is Gabriel.
P.110 about Espinosa: "Well, I usually imagine rather than think. I spend most of my time daydreaming."
written: 1999.
Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza: 1936 - 2020.
February 28, 2025
My first in the Espinosa series set in Rio de Janeiro, and I had hoped to be entertained more than I was. Its a very simple mystery; of the 'cosy' type, and predictable. The enjoyment is in the location and culture.
September 6, 2017
Continua no mesmo esquema de romance policial brasileiro old school com referências à psiquiatria (fantasia, desejo, espera, loucura, etc). Além de gostar de psiquiatria, o delegado Espinosa, morador do bairro Peixoto no Rio, parece ser um apreciador de Paris - seu apartamento tem janelas francesas com gradil de ferro batido, um dos elementos mais importantes de decoração de seu apartamento é uma altíssima pilha instável de livros e, desta vez, ele gosta de sanduíches de presunto com queijo acompanhado de vinho, um upgrade do primeiro livro, onde ele gostava de sanduíches de pernil acompanhado de cerveja. Aqui o Euber volta à ativa, é tipo uma sombra/extensão do Espinosa, meio sem personalidade. As revisões começaram a diminuir, e o tal de "no sentido de" aparece mais vezes do que o necessário.
February 16, 2017
Vento Sudoeste (Inspector Espinosa #3) - Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza | Cia das Letras, 1999, 210 páginas | Lido de 14/02/17 a 15/02/17 | Nota 4 em 5
SINOPSE
Soprava um Sudoeste quando o delegado Espinosa saiu para se encontrar com o homem que lhe fez o estranho pedido - investigar um assassinato que ainda não tinha sido cometido e cujo assassino seria ele próprio. Mais estranho ainda - o homem ignorava o motivo do crime, como seria cometido e quem seria a vítima. Mais um mistério para Espinosa resolver, num enredo escrito com a maestria de Garcia-Roza.
RESENHA
Uma história bem que mistura drama psicanalítico, temas como loucura, complexo de édipo e uma trama bem intrigante. Um excelente episódio da série do Espinosa. Notei que a prosa já adquiriu um formato confortável para o escritor, sem as alterações de ponto de vista narrativo do primeiro volume. Espinosa também se firmou mais em minha mente, e apresenta uma personalidade cada vez mais marcante. Gostei muito das personagens femininas, bem independentes e refletindo a juventude carioca do período. Muito bom!
SINOPSE
Soprava um Sudoeste quando o delegado Espinosa saiu para se encontrar com o homem que lhe fez o estranho pedido - investigar um assassinato que ainda não tinha sido cometido e cujo assassino seria ele próprio. Mais estranho ainda - o homem ignorava o motivo do crime, como seria cometido e quem seria a vítima. Mais um mistério para Espinosa resolver, num enredo escrito com a maestria de Garcia-Roza.
RESENHA
Uma história bem que mistura drama psicanalítico, temas como loucura, complexo de édipo e uma trama bem intrigante. Um excelente episódio da série do Espinosa. Notei que a prosa já adquiriu um formato confortável para o escritor, sem as alterações de ponto de vista narrativo do primeiro volume. Espinosa também se firmou mais em minha mente, e apresenta uma personalidade cada vez mais marcante. Gostei muito das personagens femininas, bem independentes e refletindo a juventude carioca do período. Muito bom!
April 25, 2020
Achei muito óbvio o final, sem surpresas.
December 29, 2024
I like this series but this one was easily predicted. I read it quickly, part of it out loud at an assisted living facility.
May 21, 2015
Vento Sudoeste
Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
Espinosa 03
Companhia das Letras
2010
A cada livro que leio do Garcia-Roza mais impressionada fico. A naturalidade com que ele expõe a realidade e a fantasia, o raciocínio lógico e a imaginação. É complemente enlouquecedor.
Apesar de não estar lendo na ordem de lançamento é possível perceber a evolução do personagem Espinosa. Um homem por si só fascinante. Sua inteligência e intuição o transformam num dos personagens mais interessante da literatura brasileira.
A trama psicológica fica evidente neste livro desde início. Um rapaz procura Espinosa para ajudá-lo, pois um "vidente" previu que ele mataria uma pessoa antes do seu próximo aniversário.
Quer ler a resenha completa e muito mais, visite o blog Momentos da Fogui:
site: http://foguiii.blogspot.com.br/2015/0...
Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
Espinosa 03
Companhia das Letras
2010
A cada livro que leio do Garcia-Roza mais impressionada fico. A naturalidade com que ele expõe a realidade e a fantasia, o raciocínio lógico e a imaginação. É complemente enlouquecedor.
Apesar de não estar lendo na ordem de lançamento é possível perceber a evolução do personagem Espinosa. Um homem por si só fascinante. Sua inteligência e intuição o transformam num dos personagens mais interessante da literatura brasileira.
A trama psicológica fica evidente neste livro desde início. Um rapaz procura Espinosa para ajudá-lo, pois um "vidente" previu que ele mataria uma pessoa antes do seu próximo aniversário.
Quer ler a resenha completa e muito mais, visite o blog Momentos da Fogui:
site: http://foguiii.blogspot.com.br/2015/0...
April 30, 2012
Overall, it's OK -- nothing special -- I figured out who the murderer was going to be, and the probable motive, even before the murder occurred.
May 14, 2021
No soy una gran lectora de los policiales, y tal vez podría apreciarlo mejor si lo fuera. O tal vez no. De cualquier forma, me pareció que las primeras 100 páginas, es decir, la primera mitad del libro, fue bastante lenta y poco interesante y probablemente si no lo estuviera leyendo para practicar mi portugués lo hubiera abandonado. La segunda mitad estuvo un poco mejor pero aún así bastante lenta. En muchos momentos me salteé párrafos o partes de párrafos porque se describian cosas en demasiado detalle y sin ninguna relevancia. Me imaginé quién iba a ser el "culpable" por una gran parte del libro, pero al final del mismo me tomó por sorpresa como terminó. También me resultó un poco más interesante las hipótesis posibles de lo que realmente había sucedido de Espinosa, pero en realidad no era más que eso. Aprecio igual que el autor jugara con algunos narradores poco fiables.
También creo que el sabor que me dejó este libro es que, aunque los libros puedan ser leídos individualmente, tienen un hilo conductor mayor que aunque no se vea en el plot se ve en los personajes y sus relaciones.
En definitiva sentí que estuvo bien, pero no mucho más para mi gusto.
También creo que el sabor que me dejó este libro es que, aunque los libros puedan ser leídos individualmente, tienen un hilo conductor mayor que aunque no se vea en el plot se ve en los personajes y sus relaciones.
En definitiva sentí que estuvo bien, pero no mucho más para mi gusto.
November 25, 2019
Another one of those books that I found on my bookshelf that probably came from one of my sisters. I have always been a huge fan of detective thrillers, so I was genuinely interested in what a Brazilian detective thriller would be like. A very readable book that I might have appreciated a bit more if I had known more about Rio (which makes me want to visit!), the only downside to the book was the small cast of characters, which made it easy to guess what what was going to happen. With that being said, the premise was intriguing enough that I was sufficiently motivated to blast through it. If I do ever visit Rio, I might very well pick up another book in the series!
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August 5, 2024Um bom romance policial. Excelente ritmo. Li o livro inteiro em poucos dias sem sentir que o tempo passava. Pela metade da história saquei mais ou menos o final. Não perdeu a graça. Tem um quê de Édipo Tropical.
Analisando friamente, talvez o relato tenha um ou dois furos. Nada que comprometa. A única coisa que me incomodou foi o fato de todos os personagens conhecerem de antemão o significado da palavra “vaticínio”. Nada verossímil.
Analisando friamente, talvez o relato tenha um ou dois furos. Nada que comprometa. A única coisa que me incomodou foi o fato de todos os personagens conhecerem de antemão o significado da palavra “vaticínio”. Nada verossímil.
November 25, 2024
I love the hard-boiled meter of this detective grinds through the urban jungle of Rio's Copacabana and Detective Espinosa pieces together a fractured crime. I live in Brazil and was amused to plot a tour of the streets and restaurants that set the scene for this novel, the conclusion was unsatisfying.
A southeasterly wind is blowing through Copa tonight. And I'll smile imagining these lost souls pounding the streets.
A southeasterly wind is blowing through Copa tonight. And I'll smile imagining these lost souls pounding the streets.
October 16, 2019
Interesting premise, interestingly written ... but no more than interesting
February 3, 2020
Nice dream like quality to the story, a story that still somehow felt real and well grounded.
December 4, 2022
It was good until the end. Too many loose ends and ambiguity about who the killer was.
December 23, 2023
Found most of the story to be entertaining (with many humourus qoutes). Was severly dissapointed by the ending however. It felt cheap and i expected a bit more.
June 2, 2012
An interesting premise for this book- a man comes to the police worried that he will kill people before he reaches his next birthday. The guy is an easily impressionable nut case. Or is he? Around page 100 we have a death. Espinosa actually takes up with the best friend of one of the victims. It all becomes pretty obvious who the killer is. Or we think so. The ending is murky and you're not quite sure if someone got away with murder. At least Espinosa got a girlfriend.
August 30, 2014
If you are looking for a mystery, this is not the place. The blurb is way way way misleading. Business executive? Seriously? He couldn't even afford to go around by taxi.
I have never been to Brazil, but I always imagined Rio, Sao Paulo, Copacabana, Ipanema, as places with bustling activities. But this book made these places seemed very quiet. Or maybe the busier the place, the lonelier the people?
Too bad it has a very loose end, too loose for my liking.
I have never been to Brazil, but I always imagined Rio, Sao Paulo, Copacabana, Ipanema, as places with bustling activities. But this book made these places seemed very quiet. Or maybe the busier the place, the lonelier the people?
Too bad it has a very loose end, too loose for my liking.
August 21, 2011
While the characters in this book felt flat, the central premise was somewhat unconvincing, and the story took quite awhile to get moving, a few interesting twists -- and a refusal to tie up every loose end -- went a ways toward redeeming this murder mystery set in Rio de Janeiro. I read it while in Rio, which made it all the more compelling.
May 4, 2014
Another of Luiz Garcia-Roza's books. I enjoyed this one more than the last one. A complex story line about a young man who has some mental problems and then is approached by a charlatan who predicts that he'll kill someone before his next birthday. I love the setting, Rio, and I enjoy reading this particular author. Looking forward to the next
February 4, 2013
Mais um belíssimo policial de Garcia-Roza, com o soberbo Delegado Espinosa, um dos mais bem construídos 'heróis' da literatura policial. Este foi um dos meus preferidos da série, dos quatro que li até agora.
December 26, 2015
One dry, distant, flat mystery. As though one of the Nouveau Roman French novelists of the 1960s had some blood pumped in her (not much) and was shipped to Brazil.
Worth reading just to chew over another way to write a mystery.
Worth reading just to chew over another way to write a mystery.
October 25, 2010
Very interesting. Much more a complex psychological study than a police procedural and not all questions are answered in the end but still a very satisfying read.
July 30, 2011
Dans la lignée de ses romans précédents. Un bon policier brésilien, qui se lit bien. La fin peut laisser sur sa faim mais ca permet à l'imagination de travailler un peu ;)
November 11, 2014
Fast moving and tricky mystery set in Rio de Janeiro. A 29-year-old man comes to the police to tell them that a psychic has told him he will kill someone before his 30th birthday.
November 23, 2015
A simply weather event carries a precarious situation involving young lovers...and a desperate act.
April 10, 2011
I found that the story dragged but ended quite well .
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