There Are No Happy Loves

by Sergio Olguin, Miranda France (Translator)

Overview

The third in Olguin’s Buenos Aires thriller series starring the gutsy, raunchy investigative reporter Veronica Rosenthal. 

Haunted by nightmares of her past, Veronica is soon involved in a new investigation. Darío, the sole survivor of a car accident that supposedly killed all his family, is convinced that his wife and child have in fact survived and that his wife has abducted their child. Then a truck searched in the port of Buenos Aires on suspicion that it is carrying drugs, is revealed to be transporting human body parts. These seemingly separate incidents prove to be tied in a shadowy web of complicity involving political and religious authorities. This is a dazzling thriller but also a story about the possibilities of love, in which jealousy, eroticism, humor and even elusive moments of happiness make an appearance.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913394721
Publisher:	Bitter Lemon Press, Ltd
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Series:	Veronica Rosenthal Mystery , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	825 KB

About the Author

The author Sergio Olguín was born in Buenos Aires in 1967 and was a journalist before turning to fiction. Olguín has won a number of awards, among others the Premio Tusquets 2009 for his novel Oscura monótona sangre (“Dark Monotonous Blood“) His books have been translated into German, French and Italian. The Fragility of Bodies and The Foreign Girls were his first novels to be translated into English.

Sergio Olguín was born in Buenos Aires in 1967 and was a journalist before turning to fiction. Olguín has won a number of awards, among others the Premio Tusquets 2009 for his novel Oscura monótona sangre (“Dark Monotonous Blood“) His books have been translated into German, French and Italian. The Fragility of Bodies and The Foreign Girls were his first novels to be translated into English.

The translator Miranda France is the author of two acclaimed volumes of travel writing: Don Quixote's Delusions and Bad Times in Buenos Aires. She has also written the novels Hill Farm and The Day Before the Fire and translated much Latin American fiction, including Claudia Piñeiro’s novels for Bitter Lemon Press

Editorial Reviews

07/11/2022

In Olguín’s engrossing third crime novel featuring Buenos Aires investigative journalist Verónica Rosenthal (after 2021’s The Foreign Girls), Darío, the lone survivor of a multiple-car accident, is sure that his daughter and wife survived the crash and that his wife has abducted their daughter. Verónica, who looks into Darío’s case, finds it strange that he’s evasive about the fact that the girl was adopted. Meanwhile, a police raid led by Verónica’s former love interest, prosecutor Federico Córdova, seizes a van that turns out to contain not drugs, as expected, but human body parts and infant corpses. With the aid of a former nun, Verónica later unearths a sinister operation involving the Catholic Church and illegal adoptions. Verónica’s and Federico’s conflicted feelings toward each other distract at times from the strong plot, but this is a quibble. Though this entry isn’t as emotionally powerful as Verónica’s previous outings, series fans will be well satisfied. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE for The Foreign Girls

 “I especially welcome new books that feature engaging, tenacious heroines: Veronica Rosenthal is a sexually adventurous, Argentinian Jewish investigative journalist. Olguín delivers a layered, gripping story, finely translated by Miranda France.” Financial Times   

“Veronica faces down men used to taking what they want. The realities of life in Latin America offer little escapism perhaps, but in the gutsy, raunchy Veronica they have a contemporary heroine to cherish.” The Times 

STARRED REVIEW: Stunning sequel to The Fragility of Bodies. Olguín exposes copious examples of moral bankruptcy en route to the devastating ending. Readers will eagerly anticipate the third volume.“ Publishers Weekly 

 

 

PRAISE for The Fragility of Bodies 

ONE OF THREE BEST THRILLERS OF 2019: It has been said that a journalist needed three qualities to succeed: “ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability”. Verónica Rosenthal, the protagonist with a chaotic personal life of Olguín’s lively new thriller The Fragility of Bodies, has these in spades” Financial Times 

“This is how I like my noir fiction: no cops with unlikely hang-ups, no copycat serial killers, no ‘here-we-go-again’ plots. Olguín concentrates instead on villains and victims and several dollops of savage sex.” SHOTS Magazine 

“A powerful tale of murder and corruption set in Buenos Aires that feels troublingly plausible. It will thrill readers with a taste for dark, gritty, real-world crime fiction. This novel is distilled single malt noir, a gripping reflection on the woes and angst of Argentinian society.” NB Magazine

 

From the Publisher

2022-07-08
Brash Buenos Aires journalist Verónica Rosenthal investigates the licensing of adoptions through the Catholic Church—a story with possible ties to the discovery of a truckful of human body parts being investigated by prosecutor Federico Córdova.

Depressed and physically a wreck, still torn over her breakup with Federico—who has stoked her jealous anger by dating another woman named Verónica—Rosenthal hasn't written anything of substance in months. She manages to pull herself out of her rut when Darío, the cousin of another former lover (who was killed in a previous book), beseeches her to help find his young daughter, Jazmín. Though authorities have ruled the girl and her mother died in a fiery auto crash that Darío barely survived, no remains were found. He is convinced his wife, with whom he was at odds, fled the scene with Jazmín and went into hiding. Jazmín, it turns out, was adopted—one of many babies from struggling families in northern Argentina who were illicitly placed by the church with well-off families, Rosenthal learns. Even more alarmingly, some of those babies were the result of sexual abuse by church officials. Teaming up with María Magdalena, a good nun who became an influential journalist, Rosenthal gets a taste of what bad nuns can be like as she zeroes in on the truth. Loosely based on actual incidents, Olguín's latest is driven by the same sense of moral urgency and enriched by the same regional color that lifted his excellent previous Rosenthal books, The Fragility of Bodies (2019) and The Foreign Girls (2021). Verónica isn't quite as compelling a character this time, her trademark sexual interludes unable to overcome their gratuitousness. But the book does a solid job of connecting the dots between narratives and, like the television series The Wire, between religious, political, and judicial institutions.

A solid entry in an impressive series.

Kirkus Reviews