Sweet Money-Ernesto Mallo; translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver

Sweet Money
Ernesto Mallo; translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver
Bitter Lemon, $14.95
ISBN 9781904738732

Jorge Turcheli is euphoric when he is named the new chief of the Buenos Aires police department. He asks his associate Superintendent Lascano, still recovering from a bullet, to return to the force. However, once an honest dedicated cop, Lascano wants to leave his homeland. However, on his first day in his new job in his office, the Apostles drug-selling cops assassinate Jorge as they plan to put one of their own in charge. The Apostle knows the next to kill is dedicated honest Lascano.

Meanwhile, Mole Miranda is released from Devoto Prison after spending one thousand four hundred and sixty one nights there for intellectual crimes. He finds his family rejects him and his best friend spent much of his money. A desperate Mole decides to rob a bank, but that goes ugly. Lascano sees an opportunity to leave Argentina with the bank robbery loot before the Apostles provide him with a funeral.

The second translated Lascano 1980s Argentina police procedural (see Needle in a Haystack) is a dark gloomy thriller in which corruption controls all aspects of the country. The two leads appear as polar opposites but share in common how far they have fallen in a system that destroys the honest. With plenty of fascinating metaphors to highlight the broken society, readers will appreciate this grim look at brutal Argentina less than three decades ago.

Harriet Klausner