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In Buenos Aires, a corrupt cop is assigned to investigate a murder he committedCommissioner Miguel Fortunato is nearing retirement after a long, dishonest career. Six months ago he was ordered to kidnap foreigner Robert Waterbury for reasons left unclear. The kidnapping turned to murder. Now the Americans are sending their own investigator, and Fortunato is assigned to support her.Fortunato is quickly drawn into the dazzling world of his victim, a failed novelist who came to Buenos Aires desparate to make a big score. As he uncovers the vast outlines of a global crime, Fortunato begins to unravel not only the murder, but the deeper mystery of his own career and the lies that have sustained it.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
5 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Stuart Archer Cohen
7 books48 followersInvisible World (Reganbooks/HarperCollins 1998)
The Stone Angels (Orion, 2003)
The Army of the Republic (St. Martin's Press, Sept 2008)
Born Cincinnati 1958.
Walnut Hills High School
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Columbia University, 1981
Moved to Juneau, Alaska 1982
Opened Invisible World, 1985 (Wool and Alpaca)
China, 1991, (Cashmere and Silk.)
Closed Invisible World, 1996
Published first novel, Invisible World, 1998
Ran out of money, 2001, Re-opened Invisible World, 2002
Published 17 Stone Angels in England, 2003, later translated into 9 other languages.
The Army of the Republic, St. Martin's Press, September 2008.
This is How it Really Sounds, St. Martin's, 2014
The Stone Angels (Orion, 2003)
The Army of the Republic (St. Martin's Press, Sept 2008)
Born Cincinnati 1958.
Walnut Hills High School
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Columbia University, 1981
Moved to Juneau, Alaska 1982
Opened Invisible World, 1985 (Wool and Alpaca)
China, 1991, (Cashmere and Silk.)
Closed Invisible World, 1996
Published first novel, Invisible World, 1998
Ran out of money, 2001, Re-opened Invisible World, 2002
Published 17 Stone Angels in England, 2003, later translated into 9 other languages.
The Army of the Republic, St. Martin's Press, September 2008.
This is How it Really Sounds, St. Martin's, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 15, 2017
Our setting is modern-day Buenos Aires - the jewel in the eye of the great dark cat that is Argentina. Her gaze writhes in tango and smoke, wound and wickedness; rampant with corruption. Comisario Miguel Fortunato has labored at the heart of such sin for far too long. He has witnessed legions of his fellow policemen twisted by its enticements; bent to bribery, coercion and violence as a matter of course. And while it is true he has been stained by this, has taken his taste, a tidy sum, cached in the secret compartment of an old marital wardrobe, he had, he thought, been able to keep his soul's degradation to a minimum. He is convinced of this - or was, until the cancer took hold of his Marcela. Until the order was given to shake a man up. Until an act of mercy, in its cruelest form, came to be required. And somehow, suddenly, he has turned into an amusement for the gods. He has been assigned to investigate the very murder he has committed.
This is where Stuart Archer Cohen begins, and it is the perfect bounce for a smooth dive into the deep end of the pool. Now we are compelled, right along with Miguel, to resurrect our victim; to test those distancing mechanisms that accompany a brutal death; to strain all justification as each and every new-found fact (and nefarious puzzle piece) is set securely into place. Who was this American, Robert Waterbury? And whom had he annoyed? What forces sent him careening from faction to faction in the country's avaricious privatization wars? What is the story here, and how much of it will Comisario Fortunato be forced to contain? Will his superiors protect him, or has he stumbled into a conspiracy well beyond his pay grade?
The tale is well-told. Intelligent, atmospheric, emotionally fearless. I was caught in the thick of it from beginning to end. If noir holds an attraction? This is a contender.
This is where Stuart Archer Cohen begins, and it is the perfect bounce for a smooth dive into the deep end of the pool. Now we are compelled, right along with Miguel, to resurrect our victim; to test those distancing mechanisms that accompany a brutal death; to strain all justification as each and every new-found fact (and nefarious puzzle piece) is set securely into place. Who was this American, Robert Waterbury? And whom had he annoyed? What forces sent him careening from faction to faction in the country's avaricious privatization wars? What is the story here, and how much of it will Comisario Fortunato be forced to contain? Will his superiors protect him, or has he stumbled into a conspiracy well beyond his pay grade?
The tale is well-told. Intelligent, atmospheric, emotionally fearless. I was caught in the thick of it from beginning to end. If noir holds an attraction? This is a contender.
November 6, 2014
(Three stars despite itself.)
17 Stone Angels (published in other editions as "The Stone Angels,)is a hybrid thriller/police procedural that takes place in a Buenos Aries that seems to be one of the most corrupt cities on the planet. No one is clean, least of all the guardians and makers of the law, everyone is complicit, or at least knowing, and the cynicism stinks to high heaven.
A career police commissioner is assigned the odd task of re-investigating the murder of a hapless American novelist that he not only killed, but that his superiors know he killed, because they set him up in the first place. The investigation is propelled by a US Senator whose proxy, a totally inexperienced, low level American government worker compels Fortunato, an aptonym if there ever was one, to work out his destiny, as his career drags to an ignominious end. Mayhem wrapped in tango and corruption ensues.
17 Stone Angels survives despite its flaws, including an act two that is so wrong I felt like throwing the book against a wall. What happens is that a secondary character takes over the book and sings a long aria as an unreliable narrator. The character had previously shown so little wit as to have been relegated to clownish comic relief.
The book survives because the plot is complicated and ridden with enough double and triple crosses to have kept me guessing, the Argentine characters are so jaw-droppingly corrupt I couldn't help but admire their professional disingenuousness, and the painting of Buenos Aires reeks with authenticity, though having never been, I really wouldn't know.
This book is a hot item in a number of translations, however, its flaws are evident, if not glaring, and it takes a bit of doing to get over them.
17 Stone Angels (published in other editions as "The Stone Angels,)is a hybrid thriller/police procedural that takes place in a Buenos Aries that seems to be one of the most corrupt cities on the planet. No one is clean, least of all the guardians and makers of the law, everyone is complicit, or at least knowing, and the cynicism stinks to high heaven.
A career police commissioner is assigned the odd task of re-investigating the murder of a hapless American novelist that he not only killed, but that his superiors know he killed, because they set him up in the first place. The investigation is propelled by a US Senator whose proxy, a totally inexperienced, low level American government worker compels Fortunato, an aptonym if there ever was one, to work out his destiny, as his career drags to an ignominious end. Mayhem wrapped in tango and corruption ensues.
17 Stone Angels survives despite its flaws, including an act two that is so wrong I felt like throwing the book against a wall. What happens is that a secondary character takes over the book and sings a long aria as an unreliable narrator. The character had previously shown so little wit as to have been relegated to clownish comic relief.
The book survives because the plot is complicated and ridden with enough double and triple crosses to have kept me guessing, the Argentine characters are so jaw-droppingly corrupt I couldn't help but admire their professional disingenuousness, and the painting of Buenos Aires reeks with authenticity, though having never been, I really wouldn't know.
This book is a hot item in a number of translations, however, its flaws are evident, if not glaring, and it takes a bit of doing to get over them.
October 11, 2015
Super read, original plot and well written. I was surprised that this did not get a major publisher, probably the foreign setting (Argentina)- Americans tend to be insular, but that's what attracted me to the story! Highly recommend.
October 30, 2014
Quite happy with story and setting and will seek author in future!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews