Betty Boo

By Claudia Piñeiro

Not for nothing is Claudia Piñeiro Argentina's most popular crime writer. Betty Boo is original, witty and hugely entertaining; it mixes murder with love, political power and journalism." Times-London

"Those willing to take the time to enjoy the style and the unusual denouement will find themselves wondering why more crime authors don't take the kinds of risks Piñeiro does." Booklist

The fourth novel from Claudia Piñeiro, South America's best-selling crime novelist.
When a renowned Buenos Aires industrialist is found dead at his home in an exclusive gated community called La Maravillosa, the novelist Nurit Iscar (once nicknamed Betty Boo owing to a resemblance to the cartoon character Betty Boop) is contracted by a former lover, the editor of a national newspaper, to cover the story. Nurit teams up with the paper's veteran, but now demoted, crime reporter. Soon they realize that they are falling in love, which complicates matters deliciously.
The murder is no random crime but one in a series that goes to the heart of the establishment. Five members of the Argentine industrial and political elite, who all went to the same boarding-school, have died in apparently innocent circumstances. The Maravillosa murder is just the last in the series and those in power in Argentina are not about to allow all this brought to light. Too much is at stake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Release date: Feb 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781912242771

Claudia Piñeiro

Born in Buenos Aires in 1960, Claudia Piñeiro is a best-selling author, known internationally for her crime novels. She has won numerous national and international prizes, including the Pepe Carvalho Prize, the LiBeraturpreis for Elena Knows and the prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for Las grietas de Jara (A Crack in the Wall). Many of her novels have been adapted for the big screen, including Elena Knows (out on Netflix in Nov 2023). Piñeiro is the third most translated Argentinean author, after Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar. She’s also a playwright and scriptwriter (including Netflix popular series El Reino). Her novel Elena Knows was shortlisted was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Reviews for Betty Boo

[librorumamans · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although she develops her main characters well, Piñeiro, it seems to me, does not have a firm grip this time on the novel she wants to write. Is it a romance which reaches its resolution when the four lonely writers, who have failed at all their prior relationships, pair off, perhaps happily ever after? In this case the story is too thin and too obvious to satisfy. Is it a whodunit where the motive for the crimes, definitely a trope for our times, is evident to the reader before the characters uncover it for themselves and where the means are not at all clear? There's certainly humour in the outlandish security measures of this gated community, but how did the murderer (or assassins?) circumvent them, both in and out? About one third of the way through the book, Piñeiro goes to some length to set up what promises to become a highly comic interlude but then drops it, leaving one to wonder why it's there at all. And there's the photograph. The characters know that it holds the key to everything (except the first murder; what was that all about?) and track down the men in it. The reader will point out that there's someone else: the photographer. The characters, who are otherwise very sharp, do not hear this until 150 or so pages later when in exasperation the reader shouts, "Who's behind the lens?"There is some context suggested by references to Muriel Sharp's "Memento Mori" (which I haven't read) and Aeschylus' "Eumenides" (which I have). The Aeschylus is a bit of a reach.In sum, the book is too unfocused to satisfy.