Blood Lake
“The Ecuadorian Andes are one of the few places on earth where you can get a sunburn and freeze to death at the same time.”
When New York City P.I. Filomena Buscarsela takes her teenage daughter, Antonia, to see their extended family in Ecuador, it’s more than a homecoming. Filomena hasn’t been back in years, and the trip brings back memories of her previous life there as a revolutionary. Strangest of all, people keep asking her if her lover—who died in a hail of police gunfire in front of her very eyes—is alive.
Before she’s even had time to adjust to her new surroundings, a priest is murdered—a man who, years ago, saved her life and helped her escape to the U.S. She owed him her life; now it’s time for the debt to be repaid, and she vows to find his killer. It’s an election year, and the dirty hands of politics seem to be everywhere, perhaps even in this senseless death.
At first, the murder seems to be part of a particularly brutal and corrupt political campaign, but it soon becomes clear that the crime has international implications as Filomena uncovers a web of intrigue that threatens to expose a presidential assassination plot.
“Wishnia’s brand of gritty surrealism jolts the reader with startling images and jarring contrasts. [He] evokes a country and a culture vividly and unforgettably.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Successfully serves up exotic atmosphere, complex family relations, social unrest, and dazzling characterization.”
—Booklist
“Gritty and realistic. There is too much to praise about this book, so suffice it to say that every element that makes a book great is in this novel, making for a truly memorable read.”
—Romantic Times
“Enormously engaging. It’s as if Wishnia were attempting to rescue the thriller from the bloat and preposterousness of Ludlumization in order to return it to its more Graham Greene-like roots in a recognizably mean real world—just as Chandler and Hammett rescued detective fiction from drawing-room gentility and yanked it down to the mean streets that had always been its natural habitat.”
—The Washington Post
“One of the most distinctive series in mystery fiction. Refreshingly original and complex.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“The first page of Blood Lake is strong, on a dead run; and the rest of the book ain’t too dusty, neither.”
—Harlan Ellison, winner of the Edgar, Hugo and Nebula awards, and all-around legend in his time.
The Spanish Edition of Blood Lake
Lago de Sangre
Un libro de misterio sobre Filomena Buscarsela
By Kenneth Wishnia
Introduction: Liz Martínez
Cuando Filomena Buscarsela, detective privado trabajando en Nueva York, lleva a su hija adolescente Antonia an Ecuador para que conozca asus familiares, la visita se trastoca en más que un simple regreso a casa. Filomena no ha pisado Ecuador en años, y este viaje le devuelve episodios de su vida pasada en los que fue una revolucionaria. Ni siquiera logra tener tiempo de adaptarse a su nuevo entorno cuando es asesinado el sacerdote que, años atrás, le salvó la vida y la ayudó a escapar hacia Estados Unidos. La investigación que emprende Filomena sobre dicho asesinato la lleva a reencontrarse con las personas de las que tuvo que escapar en el pasado. Mientras el país está atormentado por desastres naturales y sociales— deslizamiento de tierras, inundaciones, escasez de alimentos, protestas, represiones—Filomena se convierte en una fugitiva de la ley que atraviesa el país para tener un enfrentamiento culminante en la selva amazónica. Wishnia construye una novela rica en paisajes, sonidos y peligros de Ecuador, además provee una mirada irresistible sobre las raíces de una de las heroínas más dinámicas del género ficción criminal.
“La primera página de Lago de Sangre es fuerte, te parte como un rayo; el resto del libro tampoco se pierde en el polvo.”
—Harlan Ellison, sus obras han sido galardonadas con el premio Edgar Allan Poe; Hugo; Nebula; y otros premios
“La marca de surrealismo perspicaz que Wishnia propone sacude al lector con imágenes insólitas y contrastes agitados. Logra evocar a un país y su cultura de una forma vivida e inolvidable.”
—Publishers Weekly