Though The Neruda Case, the first novel by Chilean Roberto Ampuero to be translated into English, is breezily scented with the high Valparaiso air and its protagonist's genial manner, this glittering detective novel develops into a suspenseful resolution as the fictional mystery intertwines with the real-life events of Augusto Pinochet's brutal 1973 coup.
Cayetano Brulé, the hero of previous Ampuero novels, is a Cuban living in Miami who, as the novel begins, comes to Chile with his Chilean wife to work for the broad socialist goals of the recently elected Salvador Allende. He stumbles into a friendship with the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, a close ally (in real life as in this story) of Allende. Neruda hires Cayetano for a secret, personal mission: to find a former lover and ascertain if her 30-year-old daughter is the dying poet's progeny. The crumbs of the woman's trail lead Cayetano to Mexico, Cuba, Eastern Europe and Bolivia before bringing him back to Chile just as the Allende dream is dying amid the furor of impending militaristic terror. As Neruda's health declines and the dark days of Pinochet draw nearer, Cayetano's quest becomes maddeningly elusive, yet ever more imperative to the young detective as he becomes unmoored from everything except his duty to this great, and greatly flawed, man.
The Neruda Case, though ostensibly a mystery, manages also to humanize the legendary Neruda and give air to the international wound of Allende's murder. The English-speaking world would be well-served by more translations of Ampuero's work. --Cherie Ann Parker, freelance journalist and book critic