Tropical Checkmate
Thomas G Madsen
Type: Beta project
Genre: Mystery
Word count: 95,000
Warnings:Â Graphic violence, swearing
At first glance, it’s sleepy Brazilian coffee country. But under the surface, someone is trying to isolate Lieutenant Detective Renata Cardoso. They’re threatening her friends, her girlfriend. Then, Teodoro Prado turns up murdered. Renata had declined to investigate his claim of fraud against the huge coffee cooperative. Did she cause his death?
Something is rotten in Paraguacu, in the rolling hills, mountains, and coffee farms of Minas Gerais. Detective Lieutenant Renata Cardoso had provoked powerful, corrupt people before and managed to win. But this time, they were threatening the people she cared about. Isolating her, pushing her to the edge of the thing she most feared: loneliness.
Coffee farmer Teodoro Prado is found brutally murdered by the wastewater treatment plant. He had taken Renata into his confidence, claiming fraud at the huge coffee cooperative. But she had declined to help him. And now he was dead. Was it her fault? Could she have stopped it?
Her caseload and personal stress push her to the point of exhaustion and beyond. Her vaunted ‘crime whisperer’ skills might be failing her. She swims upstream against her own doubts and fears. As the threats escalate and her doubts grow, how can she turn the tables?
Thomas Madsen is a recovering corporate executive who splits his time between Fort Lauderdale and Paraguacu, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He fell in love with his wife, Marilene, and her hometown, Paraguacu, years ago. The Renata Cardoso Mystery series is set there.
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