Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage Dying Gasp : Book summary and reviews of Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage. The granddaughter of a prominent politician is missing. Silva and his team find her in Manaus, a jungle hellhole on the Amazon where an evil female doctor is making gory snuff films. Silva must overcome his own department's indifference and the corrupt local cops before he can obtain a semblance of justice for the victims. Reviews "Beyond the Book" articles Free books to read and review (US only) Find books by time period, setting & theme Read-alike suggestions by book and author Book club discussions and much more! Just $12 for 3 months or $39 for a year. Reviews. Media Reviews. "Ruthless when necessary and under no illusions about the broken system within which he works, Silva is the right man in the right place." - Publishers Weekly. "This story line makes Dying Gasp best for readers who are already familiar with Silva’s investigations." - Booklist. This information about Dying Gasp shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published. Reader Reviews. Reviews "Beyond the Book" articles Free books to read and review (US only) Find books by time period, setting & theme Read-alike suggestions by book and author Book club discussions and much more! Just $12 for 3 months or $39 for a year. Author Information. Leighton Gage Author Biography. Leighton Gage's books are crime novels set in Brazil. The author has lived in Australia, Europe, and South America and traveled widely in Asia and Africa. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, Prague, East Germany, and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke. He and his wife spent much of the year in a small town near São Paulo, and the rest in Europe and the United States, where they have children and grandchildren. He died in late July 2013 at the age of 71. Dying Gasp. A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation by Leighton Gage. Review : Chief Inspector Mario Silva and his team take on the troubling case of finding the missing granddaughter of a prominent politician in Dying Gasp , the third mystery in this series by Leighton Gage. 15-year-old Marta Malan ran away from home two months earlier after being beaten by her father for dating an 18-year-old woman. Anxious to keep what he considers his family's indiscretions quiet, Deputado Roberto Malan, the girl's grandfather, insists Silva handle the case personally. Silva's investigation leads him to Manaus, the capital city of the state of Amazonas, governed by inept politicians and a corrupt police force. It is believed that Marta is being held by a man called The Goat, who runs the most extensive network of underage prostitutes in the region. But Silva also learns that Manaus may also be the home of a former nemesis of his, Claudia Andrade, a surgeon who disappeared after her illegal organ transplant ring was broken by Silva. That she may now be involved with a new, even more disturbing, criminal activity — one that may have ensnared young Marta Malan — troubles him greatly. As the author notes in an afterward, Dying Gasp is a work of fiction based on some sad realities. It's sometimes difficult to get through some of the chapters, not because they aren't well written — they most certainly are — but because of how graphic they are. No punches are pulled in the description of some of the horrific crimes committed within the context of the story, yet their inclusion is not gratuitous in the least. The plot is well considered and paced, with a cast of interesting characters in an appropriately dank environment dripping with atmosphere. And while the overall style is one of a police procedural in which the reader is essentially omniscient, there are still a few surprising revelations. In all, Dying Gasp is a strong entry in this most sophisticated series of crime novels. Acknowledgment: Soho Press provided an ARC of Dying Gasp for this review. Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved. Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author … Buried Strangers Soho Crime (Hardcover), January 2009 ISBN-13: 9781569475140; ISBN-10: 1569475148. Every Bitter Thing Soho Crime (Hardcover), December 2010 ISBN-13: 9781569478455; ISBN-10: 1569478457. Location(s) referenced in Dying Gasp : Brazil. Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage — A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation. Publisher: Soho Crime Format: Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-613-0 Publication Date: January 2010 List Price: $24.00. Mysterious Reviews is a Division of The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and a Business Unit of the Omnimystery Family of Mystery Websites. Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage. Murder By The Book is a well-known and well-respected independent bookstore in Houston, Texas. In their recent newsletter, Michelle writes about DYING GASP, one of her favorite books of the year. From the Murder By The Book newsletter, November 5, 2010: One of Michelle’s favorite books of the year just came out in paperback. We asked her to let us know what so captivated her about it, and why it’s still in her “top ten” even after almost twelve months, “In January the book Dying Gasp (by Leighton Gage; Soho Crime; $14) came out in hardback and I already knew it would be one of my favorites of the year. Now, eleven months later, it’s available in paperback and is still in my top ten. Set against the backdrop of Northern Brazil , in one of the country’s most corrupt states, this dark story is one powerful punch in the gut. When the only daughter of an important politician goes missing with her best friend, it is a major catastrophe but one that cannot be made public. Chief Inspector Silva is forced to follow a trail of evil into Manaus to track her down. He is caught between exposing a truth that could damage a nation and rescuing one teenage girl. This novel is a beautiful juxtaposition of Brazil ’s natural beauty and its corruption.” My review of DYING GASP was written last December. The book was a Christmas present I had requested. It is a very good present because it is a very good book. AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS. “The bomb aboard the number nine tram claimed seventeen lives. Sixteen were passengers. The seventeenth was the driver of a nearby postal truck. Mail from his shattered vehicle littered the cobblestones in from of the Museum of the Tropics and fluttered, like tiny flags, from the branches of the linden trees.” Mail that has been damaged is examined and discovered to contain a bomb of another sort. A postal inspector views a DVD hoping to get some information about the sender and the recipient so the mail can be delivered as promised. But the DVD is the stuff of nightmares not just for the unwitting postal inspector but for the police who have to do something about it. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the horror is real. It is a snuff film and the producers provide enough evidence to prove that such films are not an urban legend. There is a victim and there is enough on the film to prove that she died in Brazil. As he did in his previous books, Leighton Gage grabs readers with an immediacy that propels them into the story and compels them to keep turning the pages. Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Brazil Federal Police is ordered to meet with Roberto Malan, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and one of the wealthiest men in the country. Malan’s granddaughter is missing and he wants the federal police to investigate. Marta is 15 and has been missing for two months. She is an embarrassment to the family and her grandfather would prefer she not be found. Silva is astonished; a rich and politically powerful man has not used his influence to send the police storming through the country. Instead he has ignored her danger for the sake of the family name. But Mario Silva and his team, Hector Costa and Arnaldo Nunes, are determined to find and rescue this girl when they discover that she is in Manaus, a city whose corrupt leaders are notorious throughout the country. Leighton Gage creates nuanced and believable characters and settings that pull the reader into the page. It is storytelling at its best and the reader is engaged throughout the telling of this story because of the truth at its core. It is always the poor, the young, and the innocent that pay the price when people sell their souls. The search for Marta Malan is a search to find and stop the completely corrupted individuals who make money corrupting children, making prostitutes of girls young enough to play with dolls. And it is the story of Silva’s search to find the woman who kills because she finds power in hearing the dying gasp of her victims. Brazil is the location of this book. The depraved behavior written for the characters in the book are evidenced in real life in every part of the world. Leighton Gage writes entertaining books about hard truths and it is the hard truths that set his books apart. The dying gasp one hears may well be that of a society that values pleasure at any cost above the value of life. DYING GASP, like BLOOD OF THE WICKED and BURIED STRANGERS, proveS that Gage’s talent is real and that his stories and the moral issues they address are universal. Leighton Gage Books In Order. Publication Order of Chief Inspector Mario Silva Books. Blood of the Wicked (2008) Hardcover Paperback Kindle Buried Strangers (2009) Hardcover Paperback Kindle Dying Gasp (2009) Hardcover Paperback Kindle Every Bitter Thing (2010) Hardcover Paperback Kindle A Vine in the Blood (2011) Hardcover Paperback Kindle Perfect Hatred (2012) Hardcover Paperback Kindle The Ways of Evil Men (2014) Hardcover Paperback Kindle. Leighton Gage was one of the renowned novelists from America who liked to write his books based on the mystery, suspense, and thriller genres. He was particularly well known for writing books about the police procedural, which he has shown in the Mario Silva series. Author Gage has lived in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Argentina, Germany, and Australia. Finally, he had gone on to settle down in Brazil. The Mario Silva series consists of several issues which are not found in the United States, but easily available in Brazil. Author Gage had started his writing career in the year 2008 with the release of his debut book titled Blood of the Wicked. He was born on May 13, 1942, in Rahway, New Jersey, U.S. In one of his interviews, he had said that he was inspired to write the Mario Silva books after living for more than 20 years in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His immersion into the Brazilian culture had also played an important role in developing the novel series. In his books, Gage has frequently included the problems which were existing in Brazil at that time. Such problems were considered foreign to the culture of America. Prior to the beginning of his literary career, author Gage used to work as a creative designer at the international level. He was working in a major advertising agency having its branches all over the world. In his advertising career, Gage has won more than 120 awards for excellence in advertising. He has even served as a jury of the Lions Festival held in Cannes. The other events in which he was included as a jury include the Clio Awards, the Association of Writers and Art Directors of Australia, and the Club of Art Directors of New York. Other than his own series of mystery books, author Gage has collaborated in writing a Portuguese nonfiction work titled O Filme Publicitrio. This book was sold widely in Portugal, Brazil, and Portuguese speaking African countries. It was also adopted by numerous universities in these countries as a textbook in their curriculum. As author Gage lived in different countries for extended periods, he got the chance to learn multiple languages. As a result, he can fluently speak Dutch, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and German. He lived in South Africa during the apartheid, Spain during Franco’s time, Argentina during the junta’s time, Portugal during the time of Salazar, Chile during Pinochet’s time, and Yugoslovakia and East Germany at the time of the Soviet Union’s sway. When Gage started living in Brazil, he witnessed the rule of the military government. Author Gage’s wife is a Brazilian. The two used to spend much of their time living in a small town close to Sao Paulo. During other times, they used to visit their children and grandchildren in the other countries. The books written by author Gage have been translated into multiple foreign languages. His collection of books is called as ‘The Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigations’. The books in this collection cover a wide array of subjects such as organ theft, underage prostitution, snuff videos, and other such things. In his first novel, author Gage has described the killing of a bishop. The death of Leighton Gage occurred on July 26, 2013, at his house in Miami, Florida, due to pancreatic cancer. The Mario Silva series written by Leighton Gage is comprised of a total of 7 books, which were released between the years 2008 and 2014. In the series, Maria Silva is introduced as a Chief Inspector in the Brazilian Federal Police’s Criminal Matters. The first book of the series is titled as Blood of the Wicked’. It was released by the Soho Crime publication in the year 2008. At he start of the plot, author Gage has shown that in a remote town of Brazil known as Cascatas do Pontal, the landless peasants confront the owners of the big estates. When the bishop arrives at the scene with his helicopter to lay the foundation of a new church, he gets assassinated. When the news of this matter reaches the Brazilian police, they dispatch the criminal matters’ chief inspector, Maria Silva. He is tasked to find the killer of the bishop. After Silva learns that the pope has talked to the president of Brazil about this matter, the pressure rises on him to perform. He gets helped by his nephew named Hector Costa, who also works from the federal police. In order to catch the killer, Mario and Hector are required to battle against the state police, a corrupt judicial system, and deadly criminals preying on the kids on the streets. They also face the Landless League, the rich landowners, as well as the church factions. During the course of the investigation, a few other murders take place, which are linked to the initial murder. Seeing the justice is very hard to come by, Mario resorts to desperate measures and gets determined to find the murderer at any cost. He decides to close the case once and for all by making the killer pay for his crime. The next book published in this series is titled as ‘Buried Strangers’. The Soho Crime once again released the book in the year 2009. Author Gage once again depicted Mario Silva and Hector Costa as the central characters, who are assisted by another character named Arnaldo Nunes. At the beginning of the book, a dog is shown playing with a bone in Sao Paulo. When the police come to know about this suspicious bone, they send Mario Silva and investigating team of Arnaldo Nunes and Hector Costa to look into the matter. They find that the bone was of a human and soon they come across a clandestine cemetery. The investigators discover that someone has disposed of the dead bodies of several unknown human beings secretly. It is later learned that a number of patrons who consulted a local travel agency never returned to their homes in North America. Mario Silva finally establishes the fact that the tourists were murdered. The motive for the mass murders seems completely contemporary and appalling. But, Mario, Hector, and Arnaldo seem pretty determined not to rest until they find and catch the person responsible for the mass murders. Dying Gasp. The Brazilian federal police wouldn’t typically get involved in the case of missing teenage girl—but when the girl in question is the granddaughter of a prominent politician, Silva and his team are, of course, put on her trail. It leads them to Manaus, a jungle hellhole in the Amazon. All sorts of unsavory characters can be found in the seedier corners of this South American country—and as Silva investigates, he finds troubling connections to human trafficking and snuff films. Now Silva must battle indifference, of both the ordinary and the depraved kind, to save those he can save, and find some semblance of justice for the others. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NOV 16, 2009. Chief Insp. Mario Silva does battle with not only criminals but also incompetence and corruption within the Brazilian bureaucracy in Gage's darkly violent third mystery to feature the wry, competent Silva (after 2009's Buried Strangers). The case of a missing teenage girl normally wouldn't involve the Brazilian Federal Police, unless the girl, Marta Malan, is the granddaughter of Deputado Roberto Malan, a powerful politician. Marta's disappearance is tied to a kidnapping and to a vile but lucrative international trade in underage girls, prostitution, and the making and distribution of snuff films. The trail leads to Manaus the worst city in Brazil for crooked cops, poverty, and crime. While Marta, resourceful and brave, tries to avoid her fate, Silva and his small team of top cops try to ferret out her whereabouts before it's too late. Ruthless when necessary and under no illusions about the broken system within which he works, Silva is the right man in the right place.