The Empty Fourth Floor

Apartment 401 has been sealed by court order for eight months. So why do the lights come on at night — and who brews coffee in there every morning?

Since the suspicious death of businessman Hélio Branco, the registered owner of unit 401, the Mansão Solaris building has tried to move on. But the heir to the apartment notices what nobody wants to admit: the officially empty unit is showing signs of life. Mail disappears from the box. The smell of fresh coffee drifts down the hallway. And the court seal on the door remains untouched.

Antônia Reis — former police chief of São Paulo's Civil Police, now a private investigator — takes the case expecting to unmask a squatter. Instead, she finds a tenant who exists in no public record: a man present only in traces, documents and testimony, never in flesh and blood. Between a building manager who cooperates a little too eagerly, a neighbor with a photographic memory for faces, and a caretaker loyal to whoever pays more, Antônia discovers that 401 is not an empty apartment. It is the heart of a scheme — and Hélio Branco's death was no accident.

Why readers love this book:

• A Brazilian locked-room mystery — the sealed apartment that insists on being lived in
• An invisible antagonist — a tenant who exists only in traces, revealed layer by layer
• Honest clues — you can solve the case alongside Antônia
• A case truly closed — a complete story in this volume

Book 3 of the Detective Antonia Reis series — reads perfectly as a standalone.

For fans of international crime fiction, urban mysteries, and stories where the crime is ingenious — but justice is sharper. Start reading today.