Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

It's a gripping, fascinating and well written story that mixes past and present.
The recent Argentinian history is a tragic one and it was interesting reading about this tragic past.
The characters and the plot are well developed, the mystery is solid.
It's not an easy or entertaining story but I liked it.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In this Argentinean novel set in 2001 (with memory flashbacks) Inspector Joaquin Alzada is facing a difficult day. The economy of the country is tanking and he has been unable to retire as planned because his pension has been effectively deleted. He works on, surrounded with much younger police and senior officers, working with different standards and experiences. But around them civil unrest is breaking out, with increasing public protests and mass gatherings. Alzada has a personal worry that his nephew who he has raised from a child – and who suffers from extreme mental problems caused (it will subsequently become clear) from extreme PTSD – is getting involved. But as an Argentinean of a certain age he has memories of the military Junta that overthrew the democratically elected government in the late 1970s and carried out a reign of terror, torture and killings against its own citizens. Although many of those” involved” at various levels have been retired, there has never been any real legal restitution, acknowledgement of the abuses or return of the “disappeared” to their families. Fears remain that it could happen again.
With a new toxic and possibly lethal political impasse brewing a member of a wealthy and influential family reports her sister missing. The police are busy, but behind that too is the operating principal that a person cannot be legally missing, they are either where they should be or dead. If their whereabouts are unknown there is no “evidence” that they are missing, ergo no police investigation is necessary. Alzada nonetheless agrees to try and track the last movements of the woman. It turns out that she was carrying on a relationship with a powerful politician and before (not) disappearing had recently been picked up by a ministerial car. Incidentally at about the same time a naked woman’s body had been found in a dumpster. When somebody suggests that it should be implied that the two women are linked so investigations can be carried out on both, it is risky. But when her sister claims that the body really is her sister difficulties of another type develop. Alzada will need not just to rely on a new young police officer, but to call on his old political and ex-police allies for favours. But that opens more cans of worms. Leading to the second stream of this novel.
During the military junta’s takeover Alzada was a police officer and chose to stay in the force even as the violence and abuses against the civilian population ratcheted up considerably. It slowly becomes clear that the reason Alzada has adopted his nephew is because his brother and sister in law were “disappeared” by the junta. Without acting as spoiler there is a much deeper history between the brothers to be revealed about this. But Alzada’s primary concern will be trying to immediately trace his nephew to keep him safe – this means he needs to rebuild an increasingly fractious and challenging relationship with the boy. This might mean having to reveal past family secrets that have been carefully hidden for decades.
This is a clever, dual layered, novel that uses one family passing through the awful events of Argentina to ask questions on how a person will behave in extremis. Will they merely find themselves acting out difficult events or instead take deliberate risks? – possibly without recognising the extent of the risk itself. What will trip the latter decision and how long does it take for a person to step from one side to another? Ironically the “modern" stream of political choices might seem exciting to the young, but they mirror the earlier phases of political opposition that resulted in the Junta’s rule in the 1970s-1980s. How much more courage does it take to act with this hindsight? Especially as the Junta’s rule has led to deeply embedded corruption that makes the less powerful in any sphere vulnerable. This question of contrary action is something Alzada will have to ask himself. As he moves through these difficult days a series of unexpected allies will step in with support. But the essential question of longer term safety and the future cannot of course be answered.
So this is an “issue” led novel deeply tied to controversial South American politics – but which in reality play themselves out in countries over the whole world constantly and repeatedly. In that respect it is an important novel – and at times it does not flinch from the extremities of violence that are generally hard to imagine for most people. But the recounting seems to me to be slightly clinical, a step away from the “feel” of experience, something that readers might regard as a weakness. The wish to end the tale positively undermines the deeper veracity of the whole.

Regret

Financial crisis in Argentina at the turn of the Twenty First Century and police inspector Joaquin Alzada, once the youngest inspector in the police force, now entrusted only to an unfulfilling desk job, is on the point of retirement. In the midst of riots and civil unrest the body of an unidentified young woman is brought to the Buenos Aires morgue. In the absence of anyone else Alzada must investigate. The next day, a young woman, a member of one of Buenos Aires wealthiest families, reports the disappearance of her wayward sister. Are the two women, the corpse and the disappeared, one and the same?

Twenty years earlier, in the days of the Junta, Alzada’s radical brother is disappeared by agents of the Argentinian armed forces. The police stand by and do nothing. Alzada, however, risks his life and his career to seek out and attempt to rescue his brother.

The mystery doesn’t matter here. The novel is a Trojan Horse into the murky violence and political corruption of Argentina then and now. There is much that the reader does not learn. There are no pat resolutions. But for the family of Alzada and his wife and the nephew who is as a son to them, there is ultimately hope of a better future.

Well written, surprising, sometimes shocking, moving and gripping, in the end optimistic.

Latin Noir.

In the Buenos Aires police force, Inspector Joaquín Alzada is looking forward to retirement. Twenty years' earlier, his revolutionary brother was disappeared.

The narrative alternates between two dark periods of Argentina's history: the dirty war of the early eighties, and the economic collapse and subsequent riots at the turn of this century. Repentance is steeped in the culture of Argentina and blends its political history with a person one.

Spanish author, Diaz, writes in English for her debut novel. The smattering of Spanish (with accompanying appropriate Spanish-style punctuation) adds just enough flavour without overpowering the whole. Her building of tension is skilled.

The use of italics for an inner monologue is too conspicuous, pulling the reader out of the moment. Some metaphors are laboured . The characters get up to a significant amount of treading and shuffling around their setting.

My thanks to NetGalley and to W&N, Orion Publishing for the ARC.

Repentance is a wonderful debut novel, weaving a murder mystery with an engaging look at what life was like for 'regular people' during historic events. Diaz's novel entwines two narratives in Buenos Aires, one set during the "Dirty War" under the Argentinian military junta, and the other during the 2001 December riots. Both are settings which are underserved in fiction in English, and this book wasn't just an entertaining read, but was also one which inspired me to do some further investigation into the history of this fascinatingly complex country. I'd highly recommend it!