Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera - Cristian Perfumo

If you're going to pick up Spanish language thrillers based on Amazon recommendations and bestsellers - and I expect I'll have to eventually get around to reading Juan Gómez-Jurado - you're going to come across Cristian Perfumo's Patagonia thrillers, not least because they appear to be self-published through Amazon. Personally I found the unusual setting of Patagonia - a region hardly comparable with the crime centres of the world by any means -  incentive enough to download a sample of Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera (Where I Buried Fabiana Orquera), and good enough to go on and buy the full download.

Living in small town of Puerto Deseado in the Santa Cruz region of Argentina in Patagonia, Nahuel, a teacher by profession who also writes for the local newspaper, is spending Christmas and the new year at the the remote Las Maras farm, the home of friends of his family, Dolores and Carlucho Nievas. Also staying there is their daughter Valeria and her boyfriend Pablo. The disappearance of Fabiana Orquera 30 years ago from the farm is well known to everyone in the region, or at least well known as much a mystery can be. In March 1983 she had spent the weekend in the rented accommodation there with Raúl Bãez, a married man who was also an official in the region and election candidate. Fabiana disappeared, her lover found by a farm hand collapsed and covered in blood. The blood however was of a sheep, not Fabiana, whose body, presumed dead, has never been recovered. Báez hung himself back at Las Maras 15 years after the disappearance.

Remaining a mystery for such a long time, Nahuel's interest in the story as potential for a newspaper article or a book, is spurred when he finds a letter in a drawer signed NN, dated 1998 but found only now in 2013, that suggests that the truth of where Fabiana is buried can be found in some documents that no-one now reads or remembers. The digging that Nahuel will have to do however involves a lot more research and investigation to find further clues to the mysterious NN and their enigmatic message with an unusual emblem as a seal. It was thought by some that there might be a political dimension to the incident, as many people disappeared under the military dictatorship in Argentina at this time, but the circumstances and the riddles now presented make this seem less likely.

Aside from the political situation mentioned in passing, there are other distinct features relating to the region and its history that play at least a small part in the mystery. Nina, a Spanish guest staying at the Cabaña, is interested in studying the history of the salt mines near the lighthouse at Cabo Blanco and the disappearance of towns dependent on the industry to modernisation and the extreme climate in the region. The local history and social context makes this more interesting, or at least provide some background to the unique character of this region and the people who live there. There is also some romantic tension brought into the mix in the triangle of Nahuel, Valeria and Pablo, with Nina adding another dimension. None of this is particularly revelatory or crucial to the mystery, but they provide character and colour that makes the progress of the investigation interesting.

That at least provides incentive to continue with what otherwise seem to amount to coded riddle mystery with a series of puzzles to be solved. That's usually a daft idea, leaving the resolution to the chance that clues will be found and followed in a pre-determined order and not missed or erased. Why go to that bother unless there is something to be learned through the process? As daft as this seems, in the case of Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera it does make it a compelling read. If you give up you'll never know if there is a purpose to the method. Whether it is convincing in the end is debatable, but Perfumo does try to justify everything, explain the rationale behind the puzzles and provide answers to all the questions raised. Personally, I wasn't totally convinced, but didn't feel cheated by the revelations either, and there was more than enough incentive in the writing and progress of the investigation to keep reading this entertaining and engaging mystery through to the end.

Reading notes: I read the Amazon Kindle edition of Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera by Cristian Perfumo, although his books appear to be available on other eBook platforms like Kobo. I mentioned downloading a sample before buying, but I actually downloaded a sample from a collection La trilogía de la Patagonia, and in the end only ordered the first book in the collection, as I wanted to see how it concluded. I might have went with the trilogy if they were linked as a series, but the second Nahuel Donaire mystery Las huesos de Sara isn't included in the collection. I still think I would have time to read some more Cristian Perfumo on the basis of Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera.