Voice with No Echo

February 17, 2020
At the start of Chazin’s touching and disturbing fifth Jimmy Vega mystery (after 2019’s A Place in the Wind), Holocaust survivor Max Zimmerman asks his friend Det. Jimmy Vega to help his synagogue’s longtime Salvadoran handyman, Edgar Aviles, whose temporary legal status has been rescinded. Edgar faces deportation, even though his wife is too ill to work and his son has leukemia. Jimmy can only refer Edgar to his girlfriend, Adele Figueroa, the director of an immigrant outreach center. Edgar’s case takes an unexpected turn when Jimmy is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of Talia Crowley, the DA’s wife, found hanged in the basement of the couple’s Lake Holly, N.Y., mansion. Talia’s illegal immigrant housekeeper, who’s Edgar’s niece, has gone missing. Meanwhile, Jimmy must work with his estranged half-sister, ICE agent Michelle Vega-Lopez, whose determined attempts to reestablish bonds force Jimmy to confront his own painful past. This timely tale of the plight of immigrants whose uncertain status makes them vulnerable to abuse offers no easy answers. Chazin smoothly integrates complex social issues into a satisfying whodunit. Agent: Stephany Evans, Ayesha Pande Literary.