Leighton Gage

Leighton Gage’s books are crime novels set in Brazil. The author has lived in Australia, Europe, and South America and traveled widely in Asia and Africa. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, Prague, East Germany, and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke.

His latest novel is Perfect Hatred, the sixth book in the series featuring Chief Inspector Mario Silva.

From Gage's Q & A with Grant McKenzie at The Big Thrill:

Tell us something about your protagonist.

Mario Silva is a Brazilian federal cop. You never know what he’s going to get stuck into next. It could be the genocide of an Indian tribe, or the theft of human organs, or gun-running, or the sexual exploitation of minors, or land grabs on the part of the wealthy. You name it, Silva fights it. And, since he has a national mandate, he gets to travel all over the country.

And your readers get to travel with him.

Correct. In PERFECT HATRED, for example, I’ll be taking them to São Paulo, the largest city in the southern hemisphere, to Brasilia, the national capital, and to the great waterfalls bordering Paraguay and Argentina. The region, by the way, is called the Tri-Border-Area, and is home to one of the largest Muslim communities in all of South America.

As in militant Muslims?

Big time. Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, they’re all there. Reports of a visit to the region by bin Laden remain unconfirmed, but Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was there for sure. That’s a documented fact.

So PERFECT HATRED is about terrorism?

Only in part. Other...[read on]

Visit Leighton Gage's website and the Murder is Everywhere blog.

The Page 69 Test: Blood of the Wicked

My Book, The Movie: Buried Strangers.

The Page 69 Test: Dying Gasp.

Writers Read: Leighton Gage (December 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Every Bitter Thing.

Writers Read: Leighton Gage (December 2011).

The Page 69 Test: A Vine in the Blood.

The Page 69 Test: Perfect Hatred.

Writers Read: Leighton Gage.

--Marshal Zeringue