"Carrasco '67" by Elaine Broun

Set in Uruguay, in 1967, in the heyday of the Tupamaros urban guerrilla insurgency, this fast-paced thriller has buckets of verisimilitude. There are huge amounts of detail about the procedures adopted in Uruguay in the 1960s to combat the Tupamaros; these vary from what seems to modern eyes strangely naive to hugely over the top. Similarly, the tactics of the villains, who smash bottles more often than they shoot guns, is much more in tune with the reality of the time rather than the hyped up version of fictional baddies. This book has the authenticity of a social document. 

In the same way, the characters are very down-to-earth and normal. Rather than the stereotypes of modern fiction - this misfit or the superhero - the protagonist is a very ordinary businessman with a very ordinary family life and much of the story's drama and tension was derived precisely from this mismatch between the threat and normal life. 

Furthermore, the pacing of the story also reflects the everyday experience with a slow build and some near repetitions. Nevertheless, the final twist is left to the very last moment.

The Prologue is a single line ("You might say it was destined to be or perhaps a mere coincidence, but for whatever reason, their lives were forever changed.") and that acted as a nice hook. Chapter One, an incident plucked from later on in the story, was a good further hook. 

It is always difficult to know where to strike the balance between saying too little (hopefully intriguing the reader, and engaging them by making them puzzle out things for themselves) and explaining too much (so as not to leave the reader confused and therefore alienated from the story). At the start of the book Broun explains a little too much, in my opinion. For example, we are told that Miguel is a psychopath; I think that should have been left to the reader to work out for themselves. On the other hand, the carefully enumerated details about, for example, how to keep unkidnapped when walking down the street, added massively to the realistic feel of the story.

When an author describes the action moment by moment, they can either bog the reader down in obsessive detail or they can add verisimilitude and make the story come alive. Broun got this beautifully right when Miguel breaks into the office block where he works, in chapter three. I was fully engaged. It was really quite creepy! The book really came alive at these moments, another example being when Peter is being chased down the street.

Written in short, sometimes very short, chapters, this book has the hallmarks of a classic thriller and  keeps the action going right to the end.

Selected quotes:

• "He jabbed the cigarette into the ashtray, not quite putting out the fire but breaking little sparks that danced up a little before floating down." (Ch 32)
• "The room smelled of cleaning supplies and that rancid smell that occurred when mops took too long to dry. Dr. Miller closed the door of the closet." (Ch 47)
• "They were starving. Having skipped breakfast, no prodding for the kids to eat was necessary; this soon became a race to the last bite." (Ch 55)

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God