Repentance

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What to expect

'Very impressive... Repentance is an evocative crime thriller with a likeable, self-aware protagonist, but also skilfully explores the darkest period in Argentina's modern history'
Financial Times

'An astonishingly assured first novel, both funny and moving'
The Times Crime Club

'An accomplished, inventive detective novel thrumming with tension and family secrets'
Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

Buenos Aires, 1981.
Inspector Alzada's work in the Buenos Aires police force during the Dirty War exposes him to the many realities of life under a repressive military regime. Personally, he prefers to stay out of politics, but when his hot-headed revolutionary brother Jorge is disappeared, Alzada knows he will stop at nothing to recover him.

Buenos Aires, 2001.
Argentina is in the midst of yet another devastating economic crisis. Alzada is still an inspector, determined to keep his head down in anticipation of a peaceful retirement with Paula and the nephew they've raised together. But all his plans are derailed when a young woman's dead body lands in the dumpster behind the morgue on the same day a woman from one of the city's wealthiest families goes missing.

Critics Review

An accomplished, inventive detective novel thrumming with tension, family secrets, and the trauma of a violent military dictatorship. Seamlessly moving between the Dirty War and the economic crisis of 2001, Eloísa Díaz displays an acute understanding of Argentine history and politics. Repentance is both a riveting noir and a moving exploration of one man's search to repair the past.
Sanaë Lemoine, author of THE MARGOT AFFAIR
An astonishingly assured first novel, written in English by a Spanish lawyer, that is both funny and moving
THE TIMES CRIME CLUB
Repentance is an apt title for this very impressive debut which works on multiple levels. It is an evocative crime thriller with a likeable, self-aware protagonist, but also skilfully explores the darkest period in Argentina's modern history
FINANCIAL TIMES
An outstanding debut... Aficionados of mysteries with a hard edge will welcome Inspector Alzada.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
A dark political thriller guaranteed to satisfy fans of Andrea Camilleri, Donna Leon, and Leonardo Padura.
BOOKLIST
Admirers of Buenos Aires' impeccable stylishness will be delighted, as will seekers of new brands of fictional police work
STRONG WORDS
This superbly written political conspiracy thriller shuns both sentimentality and cynicism
THE MORNING STAR
A powerful crime novel ... Opening old historical wounds that still strongly affect Argentinian society, this is a tale with many layers, many of them painful to evoke and a strong depiction of a country and a period that still simmers between the pages of history books and the crime novel is a perfect way of lancing the boil. Recommended.
CRIME TIME
Repentance is a brilliantly plotted thriller that was impossible for me to put down. Set in a Buenos Aires roiled by political corruption and economic crisis, we're introduced to the charismatic Inspector Alzada who must unravel a murder mystery in the present that unearths painful secrets from the past. Eloísa Díaz is a fantastically talented writer, and her debut is easily one of the best crime fiction reads of the year
Lauren Wilkinson, author of American Spy
This impressive, multi-layered debut is both an evocative crime thriller and a journey back to the darkest era in Argentina's modern history
Financial Times Summer Pick
A thriller that proves what this genre is capable of
Buchkultur
The criminal case takes a secondary seat as the author knows how to impressively transport the reader to the years under the brutal dictatorship and then the demonstrations of 2001, when the Argentine people rebelled against the economic crisis
Luzerner Zeitung
The novelist Eloisa Diaz signs a beautifully mastered novel set in a tormented historical context where family dramas intertwine with a great national tragedy. And where neutrality has become poison
Le Journal du Dimanche
Díaz combines skilfully constructed moments of tension with a history lesson about the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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