Gringa

Description

'As vibrant, colourful and complex as South America's largest city' Sao Paulo, 2013: a city at an extraordinary moment in its history. Mario Leme, a detective in the civil police, has developed a friendship with a young English investigative journalist, Ellie. When she goes to meet a contact in central Sao Paulo, Mario observes from the street as she walks into a building and doesn't come out. Inside, he discovers the dead body of a young man he doesn't recognise, and Ellie's phone lying on the floor. Told partly from Leme's point of view, partly from Ellie's, Gringa takes us through five days during the redevelopment of the centre of Sao Paulo in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup. Ellie's disappearance links characters at every level of the social hierarchy, from the drug dealers and civil and military police to the political class she witnesses the feral brutality of urban breakdown. Gringa, with shades of Don Winslow and James Ellroy, is a portrait of Sao Paulo in all its harshness and dysfunction, its corruption and social divisions, its kaleidoscopic dynamism, its undercurrent of derangement, and its febrile, sensual instability, executed with a deep knowledge of the city's anatomy. PRAISE FOR JOE THOMAS 'Brilliant' The Times 'Feverish energy' Guardian 'Wonderfully vivid' Mail on Sunday 'Sophisticated, dizzying' GQ 'Vivid and visceral' The Times 'Superbly realised vivid and atmospheric' Guardian 'Original' Mail on Sunday 'A stylish, atmospheric treat an inspired blend of David Peace and early Pinter' Irish Times 'Sparse, energetic, fragmented prose' The Spectator 'Vibrant, colourful, and complex' Irish Independent 'Stylish, sharp-witted, taut. A must for modern noir fans' NB Magazine 'Definitive confident and energetic' Crime Time 'Brilliant manic energy' Jake Arnott 'Wildly stylish and hugely entertaining' Lucy Caldwell 'Vivid, stylish, funny' Mick Herron 'Gripping, fast-paced, darkly atmospheric' Susanna Jones 'Snappy, thoughtful, moving' John King 'Exciting, fresh, incredibly assured' Stav Sherez 'Happy days!' Mark Timlin 'Utterly brilliant' Cathi Unsworth 'Had James Ellroy and David Peace collaborated on a novel they'd have written something like this' Paul Willets

JOE THOMAS was born in Hackney in 1977. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Sao Paulo quartet - Paradise City, Gringa, Playboy, and Brazilian Psycho - and Bent, which was a Guardian Best Book of 2020 and an Irish Times pick of the best crime fiction of 2020. His new novel, White Riot, the start of a trilogy set in Hackney in the 1970s and 1980s, is to be published by Arcadia in January 2023, and will be followed by Red Menace and True Blue. Joe lives in London with his partner and son, and teaches at City, University of London.

`The weighty social issues of the book are more than balanced with the superb characterisation... [Gringa is] a great read for those who like their crime on the darker side of the tracks, and dare I say it, even better than the debut [Paradise City]. Highly recommended.' * Raven Crime Reads * `As vibrant, colourful and complex as South America's largest city.' * Irish Independent * `A tough, uncompromising style.' -- Jon Wise `With its feverish energy, opulent nightlife, culture and chaos, the Brazilian megalopolis is a perfect setting for Joe Thomas's crime thrillers.' * The Guardian * `Paradise City is an exciting, dark and trenchant thriller, exposing the dark underbelly of Sao Paulo where money, politics and murder meet. Fresh, gripping and incredibly assured, Joe Thomas will be a name to watch in crime fiction.' -- Stav Sherez, author of The Intrusions `Paradise City is a gripping read. This fast-paced and darkly atmospheric novel introduces Joe Thomas as a new and distinct voice in crime fiction of the city.' -- Susanna Jones, author of The Earthquake Bird `Great crime fiction hinges on a sense of place, and after returning to London after ten years living in the world in which he has set his sophisticated debut, Thomas proves an adroit guide to a city that has developed at dizzying speed.' * GQ Magazine *