The Ways of Evil Men

As Chief Inspector Mario Silva has learned, justice is hard to come by in Brazil, so when his niece tells him about a possible genocide deep in the jungle, he agrees to round up his team and charter a plane to Pará to check it out. Thirty-nine natives have recently dropped dead of mysterious causes. Given the tense relationship between the Awana tribe and the white townsfolk nearby, Jade Calmon, Pará's sole government-sponsored advocate for the native population, immediately suspects foul play and takes the two remaining Awana—a father and his eight-year-old son—into her custody. But when the father is discovered holding a bloody machete next to the body of a village big-shot, just before Silva's arrival, the plot thickens. Why would a peaceful man who doesn't believe in alcohol turn into a drunken killer?ReviewPraise for *The Ways of Evil Men*: "A final gift from Leighton to his readers... His voice, his portrayal of vital fictional characters and stories, his outrage at injustices in Brazil and beyond, and his lively participation in the on-line crime fiction community will remain as his testament." —Glenn Harper, *International Noir Fiction* "A fine send-off for a compelling character." —Booklist "The late Gage (1942–2013) weaves an engaging plot and psychologically complex characters together with a sharp-edged social commentary on the Brazilian class system; his voice will be greatly missed in the crime fiction community."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED ReviewPraise for Leighton Gage's Mario Silva series: "No one writes the cold glint of evil in bright sunlight the way Leighton Gage does. And there's enough evil here—and heroism, too—for three lesser books."—Timothy Hallinan, author of Crashed "Top notch ... controversial and entirely absorbing."—*The New York Times Book Review* "A dark, violent book with characters that seethe on the page ... compelling writing. Readers will smell the steam and stench of the Amazon and recoil from the torture and depredation from which Gage averts his lens, barely in time."—*Boston Globe* "The Silva investigations have all the step-by-step excitement of a world-class procedural series." —*The Wall Street Journal *About the AuthorLeighton Gage (1942-2013) wrote seven books in the 'Mario Silva' series: Blood of the Wicked, Buried Strangers, Dying Gasp, Every Bitter Thing, A Vine in the Blood, Perfect Hatred, andThe Ways of Evil Men. Since 1973, he spent part of each year in Santana do Parnaiba, Brazil, where he met his wife, Eide. His books have been translated into French, Italian, Finnish, and Dutch.