The Beggar's Opera (An Inspector Ramirez Novel) - Softcover

Blair, Peggy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143179977 ISBN 13: 9780143179979

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2012

Synopsis

In beautiful, crumbling Old Havana, Canadian detective Mike Ellis hopes the sun and sand will help save his troubled marriage. He doesn’t yet know that it’s dead in the water—much like the little Cuban boy last seen begging the Canadian couple for a few pesos on the world famous Malecon. For Inspector Ricardo Ramirez, head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police, finding his prime suspect isn’t a problem—Cuban law is. He has only seventy-two hours to secure an indictment and prevent a vicious killer from leaving the island. But Ramirez also has his own troubles to worry about. He’s dying of the same dementia that killed his grandmother, an incurable disease that makes him see the ghosts of victims of unsolved murders. As he races against time, the dead haunt his every step ...

About this title

About the Author

Peggy Blair was a lawyer for more than thirty years. Her critically  acclaimed mystery The Beggar’s Opera won the 2012 Scotiabank  Giller Prize Readers’ Choice contest and was shortlisted for the  Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award. The Poisoned Pawn  is the second in the Inspector Ramirez series. Peggy lives in Ottawa.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Not only does Canadian Blair’s exciting new series take place in contemporary Havana—a slam dunk of a setting for crime fiction—but it also boasts an unusual and unusually intriguing premise: Inspector Ricardo Ramirez, head of Havana’s Major Crimes Unit, sees dead bodies, the ghosts of the victims of his unsolved cases. But this isn’t another paranormal wrinkle in a realistic crime series (like Charles Todd’s Inspector Rutledge novels); no, Ramirez may have inherited something called Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), in which the victim suffers from vivid hallucinations. But he hardly has time to worry about his dead companions at the moment, as a Canadian policeman, Mike Ellis, is being held on suspicion of the rape and murder of a young Cuban boy, and the police have 72 hours to formally charge or release him. Meanwhile, a Canadian lawyer, Celia Jones, arrives to help Ellis negotiate the formidable Cuban bureaucracy. Each of the three major characters could hold up a crime novel on his or her own, and Blair interweaves their stories beautifully; she also invests Havana geography (with its decaying buildings and rusting American cars) with new vigor by focusing not only on photo-worthy street scenes but also on the complex lives of the people who live inside the broken buildings. A fine novel and the launch of what looks to be a superb series. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0143179977
• ISBN 13: 9780143179979
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352