Red April [Paperback]

I first read the opening page of the novel in a bookshop and decided that the writer's style was unusual to say the least, and it didn't really appeal to me. But a week later I read a couple of reviews and realised I should have flicked through several more pages before setting it aside (as the opening is intended to be written in a particular way because it is actually a statement being given by a witness, but I'll say no more than that). The principal character is a strange yet intriguing character who you warm to despite his apparent naive view of life and rather odd habits. As the story unfolds you are plunged into the dark and disturbing history of modern Peru. Rather than reminding me of modern crime/thriller writers I felt there was more of a resonance with some of Graham Greene's novels. This is probably a fairer and more accurate comparison for judging the merits of this author.

The thriller is a elastic form, and at its best, noir fiction from Dashiell Hammett to Chester Himes' A Rage in Harlem to David Peace has highlighted social ills, raged against political corruption and embodied the spirt of a place and time. Santiago Roncagliolo's first novel, while ostensibly a thriller centring around the search for a serial killer as viscerally chilling as those of Karen Slaughter and Thomas Harris, takes as its backdrop - and eventually its denouement, the history of 20th century Peru and is struggle against Sendero Luminoso - the Shining Path terrorists who have the country for generations. It is a brave - a possibly foolhardy choice - but it is a story worthy of telling.

Roncagliolo's tale is a powerful one - though it sometimes feels as though he is attempting to compress too much of his country's past; its sins and its suffering; into a form that is too short to take the strain. The detective hero Chacaltana is a fascinating character - his mania for words and order; his conversations with his dead mother; his dreams of redemption and his nightmares of disorder - he makes for an unlikely but compelling anti-hero turned hero.

As a thriller, it is compelling - tales of serial killers are so resolutely American and urban, that the rural setting of Ayacucho is refreshing, and Roncagliolo's flair for the morbid and the visceral is unquestionable. As a document of contemporary Peru - about Shining Path, the misdeeds of the Peruvian government, and the complicity of Aldo Fujimori in suppressing terrorists threat and the subsequent cover up - it is powerful and thought-provoking. If it sometimes lacks the sweep and depth of James Ellroy or David Peace on similar territory, this is to compare it with the finest of the genre: and Red April is a fine novel - brave, intelligent and well written - a worthy debut, its ambition and execution are considerable and it is a fascinating read.

Opening `Red April' and reading the first report from our protagonist Associate District Prosecutor Felix Chacaltana Saldivar (quite a mouthful) I wasn't quite sure what this book was going to be about as the cover so heavily makes you think this is going to be some highly religious book. However reading the report of a murder, by burning, you get the instant impression that this is going to be a thriller. In reality you get a little bit of both but one the whole, for me at least, you are also getting a glimpse into the cultural turbulence of Peru, something I didn't really know that much about.

However the burnt body is the first in a series of killings during Holy Week in Ayacucho all baring striking similarities soon Felix believes he is on the trail of a serial killer which leads him into the offices of politicians, the crypts of priests, police stations and prisons and through all walks of life as he tries to solve the mystery. This of course gives Roncagliolo the perfect way of showing you how things are in Peru from girls who have to marry their rapists, the terrorism outside of the main cities and the corruption. Some could say it's a biased view and yet you get the feeling the only sides there are out there are the bad and the worse. Back to the plot, well I don't want to give too much away. I will say that it starts slowly but surely before building to a heady, verging on almost confusing, climax which you won't expect - despite the fact there are quite a lot of clues from the start.

One of the books weaknesses and strengths is Felix himself. From the start you know there is something not quite right about him, starting with the obsession with his dead mother (which I found both creepy and quite fascinating) the feeling of needing to be recognized for who he is and what he does. It seems to be a common theme in thrillers; your protagonist needs to be a little bit messed up, maybe a loner. Is this not at the same time therefore rather a cliché? In being the way he is I found it rather unbelievable when he starts dating a much younger girl, Edith, who becomes fairly pivotal yet the meeting and pairing is so unlikely (maybe it's the dish of guinea pig involved) that it undermined the tale for me and niggled at me throughout.

Another thing that niggled me throughout was something that I am unsure if was the fault of an editor, the author or the translator (Edith Grossman translates this beautifully) but why on earth did we need to be introduced to Felix with his full title of Associate District Prosecutor Felix Chacaltana Saldivar almost every time a chapter started, or on occasion a new paragraph. It's a small thing but again it broke the spell of the novel and began to irritate. This was a shame for me as it took me away from what was a rather gripping dark story that I wanted to get enthralled with and could never quite. I would recommend it though, it's something different and you will learn all about Peru which makes for eye opening and sometimes shocking reading.