Holy City

One former Miss Bolivia. Two missing Colombian drug dealers. Three wealthy tourists taken hostage. Welcome to the Holy City, where corruption is a calling and bent cops are ten a peso.

A passenger liner runs aground on the muddy banks of the Rio de la Plata. One by one, its passengers are abducted by Buenos Aires' criminal classes. As the kidnapping of three foreign businessmen sends stock markets into freefall, the job of solving the chaos falls onto the weary shoulders of the last honest man in town – Deputy Inspector Walter Carroza of the serious-crime squad. But top of his agenda is former Miss Bolivia Ana Torrente, “a cherub with tropical lips and tits”. Why is it that the bodies of the men who try to take her to bed are always found minus a head?

Devilishly ironic and shirt-soakingly atmospheric, Holy City confirms Orsi as the master chronicler of Buenos Aires' murderous underworld.