“If you kill with homemade bombs it’s called terrorism, and if you kill with machine guns and hunger it’s called defense. It’s a play on words, isn’t it? Do you know what the difference is? We don’t care. But your people piss with fear without a machine gun in their hands.”

 Felix Chacaltana is the district prosecutor in Ayacucho when a burnt out body is discovered during the Carnival. Is it simply a murder or is the resurrection of the terrorist organisation Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)? The Prosecutor has a difficult time getting the police to investigate the murder properly.

The setting is certainly interesting and as the author states in his note, most of the events in the book are true, they are just set in a fictional setting. And in the beginning it was certainly interesting to read about the prosecutor’s struggles with the corrupt and lazy police. But as the story evolved, I was less impressed. I’m not sure why, but I think the main reason is that it just turned messy and rushed. I wish it would have stuck to the path with the terrorist and the resurrection theme.

Yet Roncagliolo does a wonderful job portraying the brutality of both sides of the conflict. And that even the best of men can have the worst intentions.