The description of this novel... Infidelity and Obsession Lead to Murder... made me pick it up. The story kept me reading! And boy, what a couple of nice twists at the end!
I won't be giving anything away to tell you that the story is about Ines Pereyra, an Argentine woman who assumes that every husband will at some point in time cheat on his wife, so when she finds a note with a lipstick heart and the words "All Yours" in her husband's things, she's not surprised. But he hasn't left her, so she's convinced that it's not serious... One night, soon after the beginning of the book, her husband, Ernesto, gets a phone call late in the night. Ines picks up the extension to hear a women's voice. Ernesto makes some excuse to leave and Ines decides to follow him. She follows him somewhere dark and deserted, and see's that the woman meeting him is his secretary. "The lovers" have a terrible fight, and Ernesto tears the girl off of him only to accidentally throw her against a tree and kill her. Ines see's this and happily goes home to hear his confession and plot his alibi... but things are never that easy, are they?!
Ines goes through an amazing amount of trouble to protect her man... only to be betrayed AGAIN in the end, so the fierce love she feels for Ernesto (is it a fierc love, or just Inez protecting what is hers- and not turning out like her mother?) turns into a diabolical revenge...
Claudia Pineiro is a well known crime writer in her country of Argentina. This was my first sampling of her writing and I really enjoyed it. Towards the end I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what was going to happen. But this is a novella, so instead of a flowing, pretty read, there is a "precision" to the story. There's no time for the nuances of a 300 pages book, so things are layed out "matter of fact".
But there is time for humor, because Ines is a great character and we are privy to her thoughts along the way, which at times are funny, especially when she's trying to rationalize Ernesto's behavior. And we get to know Ines and Ernesto as a couple quite well, along with their teenage daughter. There's a great subplot about their daughter, Lali, but I can't say anything because there would be spoilers, but just let me say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In 172 pages I had a fantastic story and a great read. It's a novel of crime and passion and I would give it at least 4 stars. After digesting it a little more, I might rate it higher. And I definitely will read more of Claudia Pineiro!
All Yours by Claudia Pineiro is published by Bitter Lemon Press. It's available now at your local bookstore. Or, Here's a link for the KINDLE Version or Paperback at Amazon.
P.S. All Yours won the Clarin Prize for fiction, which is, in part, a Argentina literary award.
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