The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguin
When two European backpackers are found murdered after attending a high society party in northern Argentina, sacrificial offerings left near the bodies point to their involvement in a Macumba rite.
But for their friend Veronica Rosenthal, a courageous investigative journalist with a proclivity for sexual adventure, the story smacks of a cover-up. Sure enough, Veronica's determination to get justice for the ‘foreign girls’ quickly reveals a political dimension to the murder and leads her into very dangerous territory, bringing her face to face with old enemies, as well as new ones.
About Sergio and the translator.
Sergio Olguín was born in Buenos Aires in 1967 and was a journalist before turning to fiction. Olguín has won a number of awards, among others the Premio Tusquets 2009 for his novel Oscura monótona sangre (“Dark Monotonous Blood“) His books have been translated into German, French and Italian.
The translator Miranda France is the author of two acclaimed volumes of travel writing: Don Quixote's Delusions and Bad Times in Buenos Aires. She has also written the novels Hill Farm and The Day Before the Fire and translated much Latin American fiction, including Claudia Piñeiro’s novels for Bitter Lemon Press.
Sergio
Review.
I loved this book, pure and simple. I instantly googled when I had finished to see if I could get my hands on any more. Unfortunately, I need to be able to read Spanish for that so I am seriously hoping that Bitter Lemon is going to translate the third book. Pleaseeeeeeeee! Otherwise I need to learn a whole new language and I am horrible at languages.
‘The Foreign Girls’ was a tour de force of a crime fiction novel for me. It was packed full of action, duplicity, sex and alcohol. Veronica as a protagonist was just the right combination of sassy, flawed, impulsive, caring and fiercely intelligent. It had all the essences of a classic crime noir novel - maybe we should call this Latin Noir! If there is already a term please let me know.
The book starts with Veronica sending her friend some emails whilst she is on holiday. She mentions that she has met two girls from Europe who are also travelling through the north of Argentina. Her last email then is a revelation as it states the two girls have been murdered! However, then the book goes back in time to add in the detail to these emails as we get to see how Veronica meets them and the events prior to the crime taking place. I really enjoyed this literary trick as it really ramps up the tension as it’s hard to forget that even as we are falling love with the characters of Fridja and Petra that there is a horrible ending to their story.
The horrific deaths take place about half way through the book and this is when Veronica really comes into her own and we realise how her skills as an investigative journalist will help in her quest to find the killers. There is a tenacity about her. You know she won’t give up.
I was fascinated by this story and all the history of Argentina that was weaved into it. I know hardly anything about the history of the country and I hope to rectify this as some of it whilst sounding horrendous was also fascinating. But again for me it’s the story of the individual which I love - the social history and this novel gives a glimpse into this. How whilst the elite thrives it’s the socio-economic lower levels that really struggles, not just financially but with high levels of violences etc.
This is definitely a book that needs to be shouted about! It deserves to be read. It’s stunning novel in my opinion. An very very easy 5⭐️!
