• Author: Maria Angelica Bosco
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Murder Mystery
• No. of pages: 160
• Dates read: 31.01.21 – 02.02.21
• Star Rating: 2.5 stars
• Challenge: ONTD Feb (Read an Argentinian Author)

Plot: In the early hours of the morning, a woman is found in the elevator of a plush apartment block on Santa Fe Road, Buenos Aires. She’s young, gorgeous and dead. With this opening image starts one of the greatest crime novels ever written in Argentina. A woman has been murdered and it is immediately apparent that all the suspects have secrets to hide.

So, I picked this up as my read for the ONTD Challenge as I heard this woman was the Argentinian Agatha Christie so I was super intrigued!

This book was a really good insight into Bosco as an author but I have to be honest and say the book didn’t blow me away. I felt the mystery was good and planned out really well, it made sense and came to satisfying ending but I just didn’t really connect to the story.

The writing was fine. It didn’t have a distinctive style. It was to the point and wasn’t very flowery, I personally prefer that with my murder mysteries especially if they are set in our world. I feel that this writing style makes it easier to get the facts across. That being said, there is one element of the story, which I won’t spoil, in which Bosco changes her writing style to add an emphasis into the mindset one of the characters and it is done so well and was super captavitating. It was really effective when it is next to the factual, to the point style of the rest of the novel.

The plot was it’s strongest element. While there were elements of plot convenience I ended up really enjoying the plot itself. I think she managed to get a really interesting mystery across and solve it in a very satisfying way in only a small amount of pages. I was constantly guessing and trying to find out meanings in all the clues and I found myself over-analysing my original analysis of what I thought had happened.

On the surface the characters aren’t the most captivating. But once you get further into the story and the detectives start peeling off layers that’s when you begin to understand how great the characters are. I wish the novel was a tad bit longer to allow more character exploration though.

I really enjoyed the setting of the apartment complex/villa. I recently read an Agatha Christie book where the setting was London and while I enjoyed the book the setting felt too large. I prefer mysteries that are set in a smaller location like a villa or a hotel or a boat and I felt that this setting was too its advantage. It just helped structure the novel as you don’t find the detectives rushing around all the time to get from one place to another.

The next book I will be reviewing is a manga. It is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga by Akira Himekawa. So far, I am really enjoying it.