CASE FILE // MYSTERY

Closed Case: noir detective mysteries set in Brazil

“Where mystery meets justice”

Two private detectives, two series, seven closed cases. Lara Voss, a former Portuguese police inspector, works cases in Brazil's port and industrial cities. Antonia Reis, a former São Paulo civil police chief, moves between the capital and small-town Minas Gerais.

Every book is a complete mystery with a beginning, middle and end: all the clues are on the page for the reader to solve alongside the detective, with no gore and no gratuitous violence. Start with either series — within each one, the volumes follow the detective's life in order.

SERIES 01

Detective Lara Voss

by Helena Sarti 3 BOOKS

Lara Voss, a former Portuguese police inspector, works cases in Brazil's port and industrial cities — Santos, Campinas, Porto Serrano. Honest clues, closed cases, noir without gore.

VOL. 1

Shadows in the Harbor

Nobody saw Vítor Caldas fall. His body turned up at the Outeirinhos pier in Santos, with the official story already written: an accident. Lara Voss, a former Portuguese police inspector newly arrived in Brazil, notices what no one else did — drag marks no accident ever leaves. The widow hires her before the police even finish clearing the scene.

VOL. 2

Echoes in the Megastore

The restricted stockroom camera was wiped — almost entirely. One frame survived: Tiago Furtado carrying a box addressed to a client that doesn't exist. Hours later, he vanishes. Detective Lara Voss is brought in by the wholesaler's security manager before the trail goes cold — and before whoever erased the footage realizes what they missed.

VOL. 3

The Last Train Before Dawn

The train arrived at the terminal. The engineer didn't. Hélio Carmo was driving the last run of Line 7 when he vanished without a conventional trace — no passenger on record, no witness, just a wristwatch with its strap cut, not broken. The rail company hires Lara Voss before the press finds out, but what she uncovers on the tracks runs far deeper than one missing man.

SERIES 02

Detective Antonia Reis

by Helena Sarti 4 BOOKS

Antonia Reis, a former São Paulo civil police chief turned private detective, moves between the capital and small-town Minas Gerais. Sealed spaces, family secrets, cases the police filed away.

VOL. 1

The Silences of Vila Mariana

Nobody saw Fernanda Andrade leave the building. No camera caught her. No neighbor heard a thing. In a building where everyone knows everyone, somebody is lying.

VOL. 2

The Letter That Never Arrived

A sealed letter came back to its sender after 38 years. The problem: the official sender has been dead for decades.

VOL. 3

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?

VOL. 4

Under the Airport Glass

Twenty-two years after a man vanished the night he was set to board an international flight, the renovation of a sealed cargo warehouse at Guarulhos Airport uncovers a suitcase that shouldn't be there. The daughter who grew up hearing her father was a coward hires private detective Antônia Reis to prove what she always knew by instinct: he never ran from anyone.

Characters

CE-DE-01 // FILE

Lara Voss

Private detective · former inspector, Portuguese Judiciary Police

Compulsive observer — reads people before reading scenes
Portuguese accent, European method, instinct she can't explain
Carries the unsolved Ferreira case from Lisbon

CE-DE-02 // FILE

Antônia Reis

Private detective · former chief, São Paulo Civil Police

Reads rooms and people before saying a word
Grandmother's rosary in her pocket, candle lit before dark places
Resigned over an unsolved case that still follows her