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Invisible Country
Paraguay, 1868
A war against Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay has devastated Paraguay. Ninety percent of the males between the ages of eight and eighty have died. Food is scarce. In the small village of Santa Caterina, Padre Gregorio advises the women of his congregation to abandon the laws of the church and get pregnant by what men are available. As he leaves the pulpit, he discovers the murdered body of Ricardo Yotté, one of the most powerful men in the country, at the bottom of the belfry. Suspects abound; Eliza Lynch, a former Parisian courtesan, now the consort of the brutal dictator Francisco Solano López. Comandante Luis Menenez, local representative of the dictator, who competed with Yotté for López's favor. And a Brazilian soldier who has secretly taken up with a village girl. To avoid having an innocent person being dragged off to torture and death, a band of villagers undertakes to solve the crime, but each carries a secret they seek to protect from the others, complicating their quest for the truth.
Lyrical, complex, and meticulously researched, Annamaria Alfieri's Invisible Country is an ingenious cross between Isabel Allende and Agatha Christie.
"An engrossing, fast-paced mystery packed full of historical fact that illuminates the story but never overshadows it; a great read, highly recommended." –Historical Novel Society
"Alfieri has written an antiwar mystery that compares with the notable novels of Charles Todd." –Kirkus Review
"The author's recreation of Paraguay in the 1860s is perfectly entwined with the plot and never comes off like a travelogue or historical research. Fans of historical mysteries should not pass this one up." –Mystery Scene Magazine
A war against Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay has devastated Paraguay. Ninety percent of the males between the ages of eight and eighty have died. Food is scarce. In the small village of Santa Caterina, Padre Gregorio advises the women of his congregation to abandon the laws of the church and get pregnant by what men are available. As he leaves the pulpit, he discovers the murdered body of Ricardo Yotté, one of the most powerful men in the country, at the bottom of the belfry. Suspects abound; Eliza Lynch, a former Parisian courtesan, now the consort of the brutal dictator Francisco Solano López. Comandante Luis Menenez, local representative of the dictator, who competed with Yotté for López's favor. And a Brazilian soldier who has secretly taken up with a village girl. To avoid having an innocent person being dragged off to torture and death, a band of villagers undertakes to solve the crime, but each carries a secret they seek to protect from the others, complicating their quest for the truth.
Lyrical, complex, and meticulously researched, Annamaria Alfieri's Invisible Country is an ingenious cross between Isabel Allende and Agatha Christie.
"An engrossing, fast-paced mystery packed full of historical fact that illuminates the story but never overshadows it; a great read, highly recommended." –Historical Novel Society
"Alfieri has written an antiwar mystery that compares with the notable novels of Charles Todd." –Kirkus Review
"The author's recreation of Paraguay in the 1860s is perfectly entwined with the plot and never comes off like a travelogue or historical research. Fans of historical mysteries should not pass this one up." –Mystery Scene Magazine
291 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 3, 2012
2 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Annamaria Alfieri
10 books47 followersAnnamaria Alfieri is the pen name used by author Patricia King for her mystery novel City of Silver, set in 1650 in the wealthy Peruvian (now Bolivian) city of Potosi.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 10, 2020
As far as mysteries go, this is a reasonably compelling one although it does not appear to be the sort of mystery that leads to a series. At the core of this story we have a group of people who live in a small village that has an oversized role in Paraguay simply because it was a village that managed to hold out longer than most from being taken over by the allied forces of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay during the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance. Indeed, the latter stages of that war make the context of this particular novel, which is full of the question of how it is that the leaders of the Paraguayan regime are going to survive the disasters of war and how a nation that lost 90% of its male population is going to survive on a demographic level. Likewise, the novel is full of questions about the nature of trust as well as the problems of relationships and the celebration of life even with the complications that are involved in life in evil times such as those experienced by the characters where folly and war and bad government had disastrous consequences of the people of Paraguay.
This book is about 300 pages long and serves as a classic murder mystery set in an exotic location, namely a small village in Paraguay which has only about a handful of men left after the exactions of the military and the horrific casualties of war. The town priest delicately discusses the desirability of polygamy as a means of solving the demographic problem, with a heavy heart, and after his sermon, which is not uniformly positively related, he finds that one of the few surviving men of the town, the handsome and politically well-connected Richard Yotte, has been killed and is in his belfry. This demands an investigation, and the priest forms an alliance with some of the more clever people of the town while dealing with a slimy comendante who is seeking to use this murder as a way of getting rid of the priest and also getting his hands on his attractive niece, who is nursing a fevered Brazilian officer even as her father is nursing his crazed son in the woods. There are a lot of secrets that become more complicated as the plot moves its way to resolution and people try to cope with the horrors of war that find themselves having fully reached home by this point.
This is the sort of novel that is a compelling read but tends to cut against the existence of a sequel. This is by no means a bad thing. One wonders is there would be enough mysteries for an intelligent and thoughtful priest to solve in a postwar Paraguay that had been nearly destroyed by the imperial ambitions of its leader, but the novel is compelling enough that one cares about the well-being of its characters. If this book would be hard to adapt to a movie without an R-rating, it certainly offers some reflective material concerning life in a small town that is dealing with the complications of a destructive war and the prerogatives of demographic survival in the face of paranoid leadership and a struggle over wealth and power even in a nation that is falling apart nearly completely and whose survivors are deeply traumatized by war and starvation and occupation. And, as might be imagined, the author does a good job at showing sympathetic people who cross various borders and whose behavior is not strictly moral. Whether we are dealing with a priest losing his faith or a godly woman committing adultery or a saucy young woman in love with a Brazilian nobleman, there is a lot to interest the reader in this fascinating tale of a murder mystery entwined with high politics.
This book is about 300 pages long and serves as a classic murder mystery set in an exotic location, namely a small village in Paraguay which has only about a handful of men left after the exactions of the military and the horrific casualties of war. The town priest delicately discusses the desirability of polygamy as a means of solving the demographic problem, with a heavy heart, and after his sermon, which is not uniformly positively related, he finds that one of the few surviving men of the town, the handsome and politically well-connected Richard Yotte, has been killed and is in his belfry. This demands an investigation, and the priest forms an alliance with some of the more clever people of the town while dealing with a slimy comendante who is seeking to use this murder as a way of getting rid of the priest and also getting his hands on his attractive niece, who is nursing a fevered Brazilian officer even as her father is nursing his crazed son in the woods. There are a lot of secrets that become more complicated as the plot moves its way to resolution and people try to cope with the horrors of war that find themselves having fully reached home by this point.
This is the sort of novel that is a compelling read but tends to cut against the existence of a sequel. This is by no means a bad thing. One wonders is there would be enough mysteries for an intelligent and thoughtful priest to solve in a postwar Paraguay that had been nearly destroyed by the imperial ambitions of its leader, but the novel is compelling enough that one cares about the well-being of its characters. If this book would be hard to adapt to a movie without an R-rating, it certainly offers some reflective material concerning life in a small town that is dealing with the complications of a destructive war and the prerogatives of demographic survival in the face of paranoid leadership and a struggle over wealth and power even in a nation that is falling apart nearly completely and whose survivors are deeply traumatized by war and starvation and occupation. And, as might be imagined, the author does a good job at showing sympathetic people who cross various borders and whose behavior is not strictly moral. Whether we are dealing with a priest losing his faith or a godly woman committing adultery or a saucy young woman in love with a Brazilian nobleman, there is a lot to interest the reader in this fascinating tale of a murder mystery entwined with high politics.
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April 17, 2017This is a murder mystery set in Paraguay during the Triple Alliance War. While it does at times feel like a sleazy South American soap opera (telenovela), some of the characters were engaging and the historical-cultural aspect was well-executed (except for a couple of things, such as continually misspelling Pirebebuy). I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it, however, as it contains portayals of sexual activity that were seemingly unnecessary to the plot and at times crassly narrated.
August 11, 2012
3.5 First book I have ever read set in Paraguay and I really enjoyed this novel. A first it was quite difficult to keep all the characters straight but as I read on it became easier. Between 1863 and 1870
Paraguay fought against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, Paraguay lost 90% of it's male population which is the beginning of this mystery, and the small town of Santa Caterina is starving for food. There is a murder of an important man, and the villagers themselves set out to find the killer so that an innocent person is not to to death. Loved the small town setting, the descriptions of their culture and what they needed to do to survive and protect themselves. This is a brilliant mystery for those who love combining their mysteries with some historical fact and a different country and time period.
Paraguay fought against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, Paraguay lost 90% of it's male population which is the beginning of this mystery, and the small town of Santa Caterina is starving for food. There is a murder of an important man, and the villagers themselves set out to find the killer so that an innocent person is not to to death. Loved the small town setting, the descriptions of their culture and what they needed to do to survive and protect themselves. This is a brilliant mystery for those who love combining their mysteries with some historical fact and a different country and time period.
December 24, 2023
Still scrambling to finish the 666 challenge in 2023. After this I have 3 books remaining. I was lucky to find in my library a book set in Paraguay. It deals with fictional events in the lives of a fictional village but also with the horrors of The War of the Triple Alliance in 1868, where Vrazil and Argentina and Uruguay joined forces against Paraguay.
As the devastating war grinds their world to dust, the town's priest tells the women that Paraguay will need strong sons to rebuild. Besides the priest there are 3 old men in the town, a war wounded unkempt boy, a married man with one foot, and the ruthless commandant. The only other prospect is the very handsome sadistic power-grasping man who is close to the mistress of the nation's dictator. Except the priest has just discovered his dead body in the belfry. The world is unraveling and the death of this powerful man threatens to rip apart what remains. The priest and the leading villagers try to solve the murder before things get any worse.
This is not really a murder mystery. It is something of a soap opera but also a discussion of how the fabric of simple daily life is shredded by the turmoil of war, war which is waged for the ambitions of the powerful who seldom feel its effects. I was a little worried that the plot would feature magical realism, which drives me nuts. So I was content with the soap opera of forbidden love and rampant sex in a small town. The book is not explicit but has some mild sensuality -- less than the average Harlequin romance. And the writing was better and the story much deeper.
As the devastating war grinds their world to dust, the town's priest tells the women that Paraguay will need strong sons to rebuild. Besides the priest there are 3 old men in the town, a war wounded unkempt boy, a married man with one foot, and the ruthless commandant. The only other prospect is the very handsome sadistic power-grasping man who is close to the mistress of the nation's dictator. Except the priest has just discovered his dead body in the belfry. The world is unraveling and the death of this powerful man threatens to rip apart what remains. The priest and the leading villagers try to solve the murder before things get any worse.
This is not really a murder mystery. It is something of a soap opera but also a discussion of how the fabric of simple daily life is shredded by the turmoil of war, war which is waged for the ambitions of the powerful who seldom feel its effects. I was a little worried that the plot would feature magical realism, which drives me nuts. So I was content with the soap opera of forbidden love and rampant sex in a small town. The book is not explicit but has some mild sensuality -- less than the average Harlequin romance. And the writing was better and the story much deeper.
September 29, 2025
This is a solid mystery set in Paraguay during the War of Triple Alliance, which I knew absolutely nothing about. I thought the historical setting was really interesting and the mystery was good. There were too many characters though. It was hard to keep track of who was related to whom, who had babies with whom, etc. It was a lot to keep track of. As soon as I thought I had it all figured out, another character from earlier was mentioned and I was confused again.
June 2, 2020
Excellent little mystery set in Paraguay during the horrific 1860 Tri-country war. Meticulously researched with a clever premise: so few men left, the women should mate with whoever to repopulate Paraguay. Even the mystery was a true mystery to me as I hadn't figured it out as I usually do!
July 3, 2012
Annamaria Alfieri’s first novel, City of Silver, was set in seventeenth-century Potosi.
Now, in Invisible Country, she carries us two centuries forward, and a thousand kilometers away, to the little Paraguayan village of Santa Caterina.
As the book begins, the War of the Triple Alliance, the bloodiest clash in South American history is in its fourth year. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay continue to pursue their conflict of attrition against little Paraguay. Santa Caterina’s crops and livestock have been consumed or confiscated for the war effort. People are starving. The young men of the village have been killed or conscripted. Only the old, the infirm, or those favored by Francisco Solano Lopéz, Paraguay’s cruel dictator, remain.
The war would end almost two years in the future with the death of Lopéz and the dispatch, into exile, of Eliza Lynch, his mistress and partner in crime. But, at the time of the story, the country continues to live in fear of the ruling couple, and their stranglehold on the village is strong.
When Ricardo Yotté, a close ally of Lynch (an Irish adventuress whose real-life exploits shrink those of Evita Peron into near insignificance) is murdered, the dictator pressures his local Comandante, Luis Menenez to find the culprit.
Menenez knows his head will be on the block if he fails. A coward and a bully, he has no compunctions about accusing an innocent, even his war-hero brother-in-law, to save his own skin. So, to ensure that justice is done, a small band of Santa Caterina’s prominent citizens takes the initiative to come together and root-out the killer.
In the end, they do. But it’s just about the last person anyone would suspect.
Invisible Country excels as a mystery, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a love story, several love stories in fact, all going on at the same time.
Love and hate, desperation and despair, terror and suspense, unexpected twists and outright surprises, Invisible Country has them all.
Even a suggestion about what might have happened to Paraguay’s national treasure, a hoard that was reputed to have traveled with Lopéz and Lynch and, to this day, has never been found.
It’s a lovely book.
And no one is better at spinning South American mysteries than Annamaria Alfieri.
Incidentally, I once blogged about Eliza Lynch on the blog I share with six other writers of “International” mysteries, Murder Is Everywhere.
Those of you who would like to see pictures of Eliza and her lover, Solando Lopéz, might like to go there:
http://bit.ly/xAIS60
Now, in Invisible Country, she carries us two centuries forward, and a thousand kilometers away, to the little Paraguayan village of Santa Caterina.
As the book begins, the War of the Triple Alliance, the bloodiest clash in South American history is in its fourth year. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay continue to pursue their conflict of attrition against little Paraguay. Santa Caterina’s crops and livestock have been consumed or confiscated for the war effort. People are starving. The young men of the village have been killed or conscripted. Only the old, the infirm, or those favored by Francisco Solano Lopéz, Paraguay’s cruel dictator, remain.
The war would end almost two years in the future with the death of Lopéz and the dispatch, into exile, of Eliza Lynch, his mistress and partner in crime. But, at the time of the story, the country continues to live in fear of the ruling couple, and their stranglehold on the village is strong.
When Ricardo Yotté, a close ally of Lynch (an Irish adventuress whose real-life exploits shrink those of Evita Peron into near insignificance) is murdered, the dictator pressures his local Comandante, Luis Menenez to find the culprit.
Menenez knows his head will be on the block if he fails. A coward and a bully, he has no compunctions about accusing an innocent, even his war-hero brother-in-law, to save his own skin. So, to ensure that justice is done, a small band of Santa Caterina’s prominent citizens takes the initiative to come together and root-out the killer.
In the end, they do. But it’s just about the last person anyone would suspect.
Invisible Country excels as a mystery, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a love story, several love stories in fact, all going on at the same time.
Love and hate, desperation and despair, terror and suspense, unexpected twists and outright surprises, Invisible Country has them all.
Even a suggestion about what might have happened to Paraguay’s national treasure, a hoard that was reputed to have traveled with Lopéz and Lynch and, to this day, has never been found.
It’s a lovely book.
And no one is better at spinning South American mysteries than Annamaria Alfieri.
Incidentally, I once blogged about Eliza Lynch on the blog I share with six other writers of “International” mysteries, Murder Is Everywhere.
Those of you who would like to see pictures of Eliza and her lover, Solando Lopéz, might like to go there:
http://bit.ly/xAIS60
April 10, 2014
I could not finish this book because it is simplistic. The narrative voice is both uninteresting and undifferentiated because the style is plodding. There are three major reasons for this--most sentences do not exceed eleven words, the sentence structure is either SVObj or SLVPn or PAdj, with very little co-ordination or subordination, and the vocabulary is limited. The overall effect is to create not an evocative, nuanced narrative, but rather a text that appears to have been by and for a 7th grader. I'd rather have a text shot over my head, a la China Mieville, who makes me reach for a good dictionary, than have one dropped at my feet.
The biggest issue after the lack of technical writing merit is the following--Alfieri privileges plot over characterization, evinced by the speed with which the plot moves, and the excessive number of characters prevents any of them from having any real depth or my developing any attachment to any of them.
INVISIBLE COUNTRY was a great disappointment after THE CITY OF SILVER.
The biggest issue after the lack of technical writing merit is the following--Alfieri privileges plot over characterization, evinced by the speed with which the plot moves, and the excessive number of characters prevents any of them from having any real depth or my developing any attachment to any of them.
INVISIBLE COUNTRY was a great disappointment after THE CITY OF SILVER.
September 10, 2016
yeah... its trash... but its set in paraguay and gives some historical context?
July 11, 2012
I will read ANYTHING about Paraguay's war against the triple alliance, so finding Alfieri's second book was catnip for me. Her first, City of SIlver, provided a fascinating glimpse into Spanish colonial power and intrigue in the city of Potosi, which is apparently the best-preserved baroque Spanish city in the world. I want to go! Invisible Country did not live up to Alfieri's first, but it rolled along easily enough to hold my interest. That war ended in 1866, and Paraguay is still recovering from it.
September 3, 2012
One does not read that many books involving Paraguay. I found this interesting and a very good book! It's a fact that there was a triple alliance war wihich involved Brazil and Argentina going to war with small Paraguay, with no really good reason other than grandiose dreams of the dictator in question. But there comes a time no matter how scared and beaten you are, you have to just come forth and keep going, and that's what happened. A bit of justice in it's own way.
September 4, 2012
An interesting novel that centers around a murder but that focus is used to describe unforgettable characters in Paraguay in the time of a war that is tearing the country apart. The author sounds genuine no matter what the character she is describing - dictator type general, priest who urges people to forget the rules and get the women pregnant so the country doesn't die out, young girl who falls in love with one of the enemy.
November 5, 2012
Amusing, very human, and informative - but not much of a mystery. At any rate the mystery is not the most important part of the story here. What IS striking about the book is the story of something called the "Triple Alliance" and a war in the 19th century that practically decimated Paraguay, virtually a genocide by a dictator who ruled the country at the time and sent his people into an ill-advised war against Brazil. Heartbreaking, really, although told with humor and humanity.
July 31, 2016
I enjoyed this book. It was interesting, historical and difficult to read at times. I want to learn more about Paraguay. They seem to be a proud, strong people whose culture deserves studying. I want to read about today's Paraguay.
May 8, 2013
One of the best of historical fiction, this is the second I've read by Annamaria Alfieri, and I loved them both. Set in colonial Central America, the descriptive passages and characterizations give a strong sense of the culture and time. And there's a mystery to boot!
July 11, 2013
Took me a bit to get through the beginning - a bit depressing as it starts in a warn torn country where 90% of the men have been killed. But once I got past that I enjoyed the writing style and the array of characters.
January 24, 2016
One of my employees recommended this book to me after she read and enjoyed it. I found it hard to want to keep reading. I think I did not care enough about the characters to drive me to keep reading to find out what happened to any of them.
March 27, 2016
While the story and mystery itself were just okay, the fascinating thing for me was the time and place in history. Paraguay is a country I do not know anything about so for me learning about it was interesting.
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August 18, 2012I thought I'd give this a try (new to me author), but I just couldn't really get into this book, so am quitting after one hundred+ pages.
September 5, 2012
Fun read. I give it 3.25. It's sort of a romantic comedy of errors history story.
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January 3, 2013Just couldn't get into the story...
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews