The Mystery of Rio

The Mystery of Rio (Murder Mystery)

By Alberto Mussa

ISBN #978-1609451363

Europa Editions

Price $16.00

192 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

In 1913 Rio de Janeiro, a government official is murdered in a house of prostitution. The main suspect is the prostitute administering to his needs. The prostitute disappears completely, and the police are baffled. They find her brother, but he says he doesn’t know where she is. Did she really kill the man, or has something befallen her also?

This was a very weird story. Written like a Cold Case investigation, the narrator explaining what has happened, and what transpired over the course of the investigation. The reader is bored with details and history of Rio de Janeiro, often going off on tangents about other cases centuries before. There is little, if any, tension or danger to the investigators.

However, the mystery of the murder was such that the reader will want to follow the case to its conclusion. Although I had my suspicions about the case, as all the so-called clues were presented within the first 75 pages, I wanted to find out if my ideas were correct. This book will interest True Crime readers more than fiction readers, simply the way it was written, yet it presents a fine mystery in the telling.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories