The Chief Inspector Mario Silva Series, Crime Novels Set in Brazil

Leighton Gage has lived in Australia, Europe, and South America and traveled widely in Asia and Africa. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, Prague, East Germany, and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke. He is fluent in three languages and conversant in three more.

He has a daughter and three grandchildren in Paris, a daughter in The Netherlands, and two more in the United States. He and his wife divide their time between all three of those places and Brazil, her native country.

The Books:
Chief Inspector Mario Silva has a big job. He's a Brazilian Federal Cop. In his country there's no FBI, no DEA, no Secret Service, no DHS, no CBP and most police corporations have no Internal Affairs Department. Mario and his colleagues have to do it all and more. And they do it while traveling a lot. The area of their responsibility is larger than the continental United States.

Leighton Gage, Author of the Silva Mysteries
Leighton Gage
Dying Gasp Cover
Dying Gasp
In this, the latest addition to the series, Mario and his colleagues travel to an Amazonian hell and battle one of Brazil's gravest social problems - the enforced prostitution of young girls.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Read an Excerpt from Dying Gasp.

Where to Buy:
  • Find an independent bookseller near you.
  • Amazon
  • Barnes and Noble
  • Buried Strangers Cover
    Buried Strangers
    In São Paulo, the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, more cops are killed each year than in all of the United States, Canada and the UK combined. Not all of them are entirely innocent victims.

    Trade Paperback: 320 pages
    Read an Excerpt from Buried Strangers.

    Where to Buy:
  • Find an independent bookseller near you.
  • Amazon
  • Barnes and Noble
  • Blood of the Wicked Cover
    Blood of the Wicked
    Brazil's rural countryside is anything but peaceful. Conflicts between the owners of great estates and the landless cost many lives, thousands in the last decade alone. It's a tragic situation that lends itself to a fascinating story.

    Trade Paperback: 304 pages
    Read an Excerpt from Blood of the Wicked.

    Where to Buy:
  • Find an independent bookseller near you.
  • Amazon
  • Barnes and Noble

  • Praise for the Chief Inspector Silva Series

    "An outstanding series...Gage's talents include not only captivating characters and realistic plots, but also an intensely realized sense of place and an urelentingly fast pace that yanks the reader from beginning to end, unable to stop or pause, just as the cops are unable to take a day off. Silva just may be South America's Kurt Wallander."

    - Booklist

    "...top notch..."

    - New York Times

    "...powerful and gripping..."

    - Florida Sun Sentinel

    "...intelligent and subtle...suspenseful and sophisticated..."

    - Publisher's Weekly

    "...Highly recommended..." (Starred Review)

    - Library Journal

    "...compelling...an impressive tapestry of believable characters..."

    - Kirkus Reviews

    "...strongly written and powerful..."

    - Mysterious Reviews