Interview

Join Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza in a conversation about his Inspector Espinosa series, his love for Rio de Janeiro, and what fans should expect in his next two books.

You had a long and distinguished academic career in psychology and philosophy, but eight years ago decided to try something entirely new. What inspired you to become a mystery writer? How has your training as a psychologist helped in your crime writing?
I am attracted first of all, to the freedom that fictional narrative offers compared to the rigid conceptual structure of the scientific discourse; secondly, to the fact that mystery novels are the direct descendants of mythological thought (and ancient Greek poetry), and bring to the center of the narrative the most intense and fundamental questions of the human being: death and sexuality. These are also the main concerns of psychoanalysis, one of the two areas of my academic research.

Much in the same way that Raymond Chandler evoked the spirit and eccentricities of Los Angeles in his books, Rio de Janeiro is an important character in your mysteries. Why do you set the novels in Rio? What does it offer you as a writer?
I was born in Rio de Janeiro and I’ve always lived there (more precisely, in Copacabana). Rio is not only one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but a city with a complex political structure and dramatic social-economic ...