Needle in a Haystack (An Inspector Lascano Mystery)

Needle in a Haystack is a noir crime novel blended with social/political observation. The story is not driven by a `whodunnit' or `howdunnit' narrative, as it is fairly clear from the start who killed the third body and why. Rather the hook is who will win out between Lascano and Giribaldi; whether justice will prevail. I'll avoid a spoiler, but needless to say the book has one of the best endings to a novel I've read so far this year. Throughout the characterisation and social relations are keenly portrayed and the prose is well crafted. The plot is relatively straightforward, but that doesn't detract from the reading experience. There were one or two things that didn't quite ring right, such as Biterman's backstory, but otherwise one felt immersed in the claustrophobic life of Buenos Aires in the late 1970s. Overall, an informative and entertaining slice of noir, lifted by a great ending.

A disjointed read, with no real coherent strategy. None of the principal character does not have a powerful presence to drive the events along and taking the reader on a journey through a terrible period in the history of Argentina.The story revolves around a cliche ridden policeman, dead wife etc etc. a quirky pathologist smokes pot, a nasty military officer with a deranged wife, and a murder of a Jewish money lender.Having been in Argentina during this period I think the novel is insulting to those who suffered at the hands of thea corrupt and vicious state.This reads like painting a story by numbers.

Set against the Argentine military junta's brutal Dirty War against "subversives" in its own population, this is one of those tales of a good cop in a corrupt system. While Perro Lascano investigates a double/triple murder (which he eventually solves with unsatisfactory ease), the junta abducts and murders dozens of people throughout the book.Lascano is one of those tormented cops who feature in many crime novels; he grieves for his dead wife. One of the plot's more unlikely turns is when Lascano raids a brothel and discovers a revolutionary prostitute who happens to be the exact double of his wife.Mallo adopts a strange stylistic device; all dialogue is presented as lengthy single paragraphs, with minimal punctuation which does not include quotation marks. It is not difficult to decipher who is saying what to whom; but it is difficult to see what purpose this serves.Mallo does not give us great insights into the motivation behind the Dirty War; he simply presents the protagonists' murderous actions.This is the first of a trilogy of Lascano novels; if you enjoy them, then also try Philip Kerr's similar (but in my view better) novels about Bernie Gunther, a Berlin cop in Nazi Germany.

Strong on atmosphere, complex in structure, Needle in a Haystack doesn't read easily. The author comes at his story from various angles through an assortment of characters. Concentration and patience are required to remember who is Amancio and who is Biterman. A certain amount of indulgence may be thought necessary to believe in Eva.Then there is the issue of dialogue presented in single long italicised paragraphs. It is undoubtedly possible to work out who speaks first and who replies, but it requires an effort to deal with what comes to seem tiresomely like a stylistic gimmick.Needle in a Haystack and its successor are apparently being turned into films. Hopefully, they will be easier to follow.

I found this porteño mystery extremely engrossing. It lays bare the nastiness and dirtiness of the times in which it is set - the olive-green military uniforms and vehicles punctuate the action with reminders of how precarious human life was during the Dirty War - with a cast of characters that represents the various factions involved: leftist activists, innocent "subversives", partisan judges, crooked aristocrats and ruthless military men, to name but a few. The overall effect is colourful and engaging, and the plot rattles along nicely thanks to Mallo's energetic storytelling and Soutar's elegant translation. I have the next one and will be reading it with high expectations.

This book is set in a very dark period of Argentinas history and I was intrigued to see how Mallo could weave a story about an honest cop through a brutal and dangerous era. He succeeds pretty well and at the same time takes you through a journey around Buenos Aires which reminded me vividly of my time there many years ago.

Mallo's story is a succinct, gripping account of a cop trying to survive in a corrupt regime. His investigations unearth a web of intrigue and murder, carried out by police colleagues under the orders of the military dictators in late seventies Argentina.