Windows To The World

Every Bitter Thing 

    Leighton Gage

A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation by Leighton Gage


Mario Silva a Chief Inspector of the Brazilian Federal Police is called by his superiors to a very nice apartment in Brazilia. It was the home of the son of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister who has been found dead behind a couch viciously murdered.


While the first investigators at the scene immediately jump to the conclusion that is was a crime of passion with the murderer close at hand, Silva advises caution because he knows immediately that things are not what they seem.


Silva has access to a centralized computer system that allows him to search for similar crimes and there appear to be several killings done in different areas of the country with similar, perhaps identical MO’s. Maria and his excellent team set out to investigate all these deaths in order to see if they can be connected. The main similarity is that they were all traveling together on the same airplane.

 Astute detective work on the part of the Federal Police team inexorably leads to an understanding about the possible motives as well as the people involved. When it becomes clear that there is a possibility of warning future victims this action is taken. With this method Gage explores the varying human responses to a dire warning.


Long before the denouement one is completely engrossed in the story and there was a point in the story for me where I developed murderous tendencies vicariously. The revelations came smoothly and were paced beautifully. There was no rehashing of old clues or alibi's. In short this mystery was revealed as the core of a rose is revealed one layer at a time until the golden center is visible but not perhaps not exactly what was expecting.


The title of the book is taken from the bible

“To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.” Proverbs 27:7

There is bitter and sweet through out this book, in the descriptions of Brazil, in the solving of the crime as well as in the feelings one has when the last phrase is reached.