Showing posts with label Sergio Olguin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sergio Olguin. Show all posts

Saturday, February 10, 2024

#8: There Are No Happy Loves by Sergio Olguin

An investigative journalist and her ex, a lawyer, stumble upon a network of organ traffickers and adoption fraud in Sergio Olguin's There Are No Happy Loves.

This is the third in the series about Buenos Aires-based journalist Veronica Rosenthal and has many callbacks to the first two books in the series.  This one focuses a lot of attention on corruption of church and state in Argentina and is painted on a broad canvas with multiple story threads.

I think Olguin is a solid thriller writer and I have enjoyed this series.

I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana.

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

#54: The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguin

An Argentinian investigative reporter goes on vacation, and meets two young women she decides to travel with; but one fateful night those women turn up dead, and the reporter won't quit until she knows what happened in Sergio Olguin's The Foreign Girls.

This is the second in Olguin's Veronica Rosenthal series, and carries over some of the threads from the first book, but is missing the previous story's unusual plot.

The first novel, The Fragility of Bodies, centered around a sinister gambling ring that bets on whether underprivileged kids can jump out of the way of a speeding train in time.  This one is more standard, as the two girls' deaths seem to be tied loosely to occult practices but more directly to a pair of affluent families who have literally gotten away with murder over the years.

The most interesting part, for North American readers, might be the casual and pervasive political corruption in Argentina that the reporter and her intrepid friends deal with, while trying to bring to justice people who normally don't have to be ruled by it.

Philosophical, but laden with sex and violence; compulsively readable, but a half-step from the first novel.  

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

Friday, March 20, 2020

#14: The Fragility of Bodies by Sergio Olguin

A tough Buenos Aires magazine reporter finds out that rich people are gambling on a disturbing contest involving a moving train and impoverished children in Sergio Olguin's The Fragility of Bodies.

The investigation becomes complex and deadly when she learns the contest threads through all levels of government, as well as the police.  A volatile relationship she ill-advisedly starts with a married conductor doesn't help matters.

This is the first in a series from Olguin, also the first translated into English.  There is apparently an Argentinian television series around the character as well.

Oguin is a vivid writer, working with a lot of unique characters and situations.  The storytelling is full of explosive violence and raw sex and features an unusual plot.  Rewarding for genre fans.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.