Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

"Urgent Matters" by Paula Rodríguez, translated by Sarah Moses, is a gripping thriller that delves into the chaos following a catastrophic train crash in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. The novel opens with a haunting scene where forty-three lives are abruptly ended, and amidst the wreckage, a prayer card of Saint Expeditus—the patron saint of urgent matters—flutters ominously.

The protagonist, Hugo, a criminal embroiled in a murder case, finds himself on the ill-fated train. In the aftermath of the crash, he seizes the opportunity to escape, leaving his past and identity buried among the unrecognizable bodies. This twist of fate sets off a thrilling chase, with the tenacious Detective Domínguez piecing together the clues that link the train disaster to his ongoing murder investigation.

Rodríguez's narrative is a masterful blend of suspense and social commentary, painting a vivid picture of a society grappling with corruption and the media's frenzied interference. The story is a reflection on the concept of guilt and innocence in a world where such absolutes are rarely discernible.

The pacing of the novel is relentless, mirroring the urgency of its title. Rodríguez's prose, seamlessly translated by Moses, is both sharp and evocative, capturing the reader's attention from the first page to the last. The characters are well-realized, each with their own flaws and motivations that add depth to the unfolding drama.

"Urgent Matters" is a notable addition to the genre of South American noir.

It's a novel that thrills with its plot twists and turns, but also lingers in the mind for its poignant exploration of human nature in the face of disaster.

Rodríguez has crafted a story that is both an electrifying thriller and a profound commentary on the urgent matters of life and death.

Thank you Netgalley. This was a difficult read for me. The story was fast paced and intriguing at first but then I was lost. I couldn't get invested in any of the characters.

I almost did not finish but decided to carry on and see if it got any better. For me it did not and I had a headache trying to keep up with the fast paced jumbled tale. Skim read the second half as my patience abandoned me.

I really wanted to like this one but it was a little to choppy and jumped around to much for me but I think overall was a good concept for a novel
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review and read this book

First published in Spain in 2021; published in translation by Pushkin Vertigo on July 25, 2023

Urgent Matters is Argentinian noir spiced with dark humor. Its focus is on the reaction of characters to urgent events that always seem to surprise them.

Hugo Lamadrid is a passenger on a train that crashes. He survives, although he wakes up surrounded by corpses. He’s holding a prayer card for the patron saint of urgent matters when rescuers arrive to cut open his carriage and hoist him to freedom.

The rescuers take Hugo to a hospital. He lost his phone and wallet in the crash so he’s relieved when he isn’t quickly identified. Hugo seizes an opportunity to escape from the hospital. He’s worried that his friend Beto might have talked to the police. Beto is worried that the police are coming for him.

Hugo committed a small, unintended crime. Small in Hugo’s eyes, but the police might have a different view, even in Argentina. Beto helped him clean up the mess. Hugo wants to protect Beto but Hugo is not a deep thinker. “He’s pure intuition and argumentative noise.”

At the crash scene, Detective Osvaldo Domínguez finds Hugo’s phone and reads a text from Marta Lacase asking if Hugo is okay. After Domínguez visits Marta, she and her daughter Evelyn pack their bags with cash and leave Buenos Aires. They make an unexpected visit to Marta’s sister Mónica and their mother Olga in Colon, where Mónica works as the slot manager at a casino. Each family member seems to view crime as a useful sideline, although they often keep the details of their criminal enterprises hidden from each other.

Different characters have different opinions about whether Hugo is alive or dead. Only a couple of characters have opinions that are based on facts. El Rifle is a television journalist who knows Hugo. He makes a national news story out of the authorities’ inability to say whether Hugo died in the train accident. Evelyn would also like to know whether her father is alive or dead. Olga is unhappy when she learns that Hugo didn’t die in the crash, but she doesn’t share that knowledge with Evelyn or with reporters who are camped on her doorstep, covering the prayer vigil for Hugo.

Third-person point of view jumps from character to character to tell the unfolding story. The plot loosely follows Domínguez as he tries to learn the truth about Hugo’s fate (a truth that doesn’t concern his superiors, who believe the publicity will be more favorable to them if they simply report that Hugo is dead). To the extent that the story resolves, it does so shortly after a roller coaster ride that Hugo and Beto share.

Roller coasters are a popular metaphor for life, one that Hugo cannot help but notice. “The momentum comes from the first fall. It’s the only one that matters. Everything that comes after it is downhill, even if you’re going up. If you go up a little, it’s so you fall with more force. You’re falling from the start.” Such is life, or at least Hugo’s life.

Olga’s bitterness adds comic relief, as do arguments about which prayers for Hugo will play well with the television audience. The prayer-givers are fickle; when neither Hugo nor his corpse turn up after a couple of days, they lose interest. If prayers go unanswered, maybe it’s time to pray for something else. The media’s fixation on a story about which they know nothing is another source of humor.

My favorite comic moments involve Mónica’s impressive collection of vibrators. Evelyn panics when she steals a cellphone that she hides in a vibrator box. Getting caught with the vibrator is somewhat preferable to getting caught with the stolen phone, despite the lectures she must endure about the damage a vibrator can cause to a virgin.

Urgent Matters is not the kind of crime story that builds tension with each plot twist. The plot is simple and linear; nearly all violence occurs offstage. Like prayer, crime and corruption are simply part of Argentinian life. Characters write their own fates and (like Donnie Brasco in the movie of the same name) they understand and accept without argument that their actions have inevitable consequences. The novel uses a crime plot to deliver grins and soft laughter rather than thrills. Because it does so effectively with sympathetic characters, Urgent Matters is a refreshing change from heavier fare.

RECOMMENDED

Fast, fun, mordantly funny...I hope the publisher's comps of Cha and Locke are resonating with you, because I think they're spot-on. There's little to mark this very entertaining read out of a crowded field, though, except some they-work-for-you or don't hints of hilariously implied Heavenly intercession. As foreshadowed in the synopsis, guilt and/or innocence really aren't the point here, so the ma'at-oriented mystery reader might not be well-served here...more, to me, of a Highsmith/gray hero vibe.

When a train crashes and leaves 43 people dead in Buenos Aires, a prayer card of the patron saint flutters over the wreckage. One interesting person on the train is Hugo a criminal on the run for murder, he sees this as a chance to sneak away leaving all his possessions on the train, and hopes the police would classify him as one of the deceased. But Detective Dominguez has other plans and thinks there is a link between his murder case as well as the wreckage.

This book is an enjoyable and original thriller. It is entertaining and has an unusual concept. Its not a "who done it', more a "will they get away with it". The setting, just outside Buenos Aires, gives this book the little extra it needs to stand out. The translation is excellent, making it a smooth and enjoyable read.

Meh. It’s supposed to be “an electric Argentinian noir about police corruption and the media,” but I found that to be a stretch. The changing scenes/characters were quick and constant. I often had no idea what was going on! There was also a level of Catholic mockery that I didn’t care for either.

Compelling, Immersive..
A train crash in the Buenos Aires suburbs has tragic consequences. Many are dead but one man uses the devastation to plan his escape. It’s not long before police are on that man’s tail. A breathless thriller, fast and pacy and with a sharp edged narrative which becomes as much a social commentary as a police chase for a man wanted for murder. Translated well from the Spanish, a compelling and immersive read.

My thanks to @netgalley and @pushkinpress for my copy of this in exchange for an honest review – this one is published 25th July if this review interests you.

The Americans are more astute when it comes to matters like these. They say “not guilty”. They don’t say “innocent”. Because as far as innocence goes, no one can make that claim.

“Urgent Matters” revolves around a train crash in Buenos Aires which leaves 43 people dead. More problematically for the police, two of them remain unidentified, which gives career criminal Hugo a chance to escape the wreckage and, potentially, the murder charge hanging over him. Detective Dominguez is hot on his trail, however, determined to wrap up this case against the best efforts of Hugo, his mother-in-law, and even the media.

All of this I have taken from various blurbs and other sources that aren’t me. There’s also something to do with Saint Expeditus, the patron saint of urgent matters, and a card bearing his name in the crash, but I found this book borderline unfollowable. Characters just appear without warning or explanation, flung into the bender of the story and completely upending any sense of progression of pace or plot. There’s a sub-plot around a mobile phone and messaging, and maybe it was just the formatting of the ARC, but it was impossible to follow what was going on, at least for me. Not a thriller in any sense, and not really doing enough in other areas (theme, characterization, suspense) to make up for it. A complete miss for me, and one I really can’t recommend at all. Definitely a bad idea to read this so soon after Piñeiro…

I was looking forward to this as thrillers are my favourite genre. I think it started off really well and was intrigued as to what was going to happen. Then it got a bit confusing as for a shorter story there are lots of characters and the story jumped between them so I personally found it hard to keep up, and wasn’t entirely sure what was happening! I’m not sure if this was me or something was lost in translation.
I thought it was okay and I think I’d read another of Paula Rodriguez’s books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC

This is not a mystery and actually not much of a thriller either but it's intriguing. Hugo takes advantage of being in a train crash to take off, He's being pursued by Detective Dominguez on a murder charge. Dominguez is one dogged investigator who must deal not only with Hugo's escape but also with Hugo's family, especially his mother in law, It's. tad disjointed, which I chalked up to translation issues, but that might also be the author's style. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, A fast read for fans of world literature,

So well written so tense a true page turner.Picked it up to read-a few pages and stayed up late could not put it down.Will be recommending the book and the author.#etgalley #urgentmatters

A debut police procedural, this time from Argentinian author Paula Rodriguez, Urgent Matters (2023) is translated by Sarah Moses. Hugo is traveling on a Buenos Aries train one morning when it crashes, and he decides to leave his possessions and identity behind. Detective Domínguez is after Hugo as he is a suspect in a murder investigation. Hugo’s family is uncertain whether he survived the fatal crash, as the detective visits them seeking answers. An enjoyable crime read with appealing characters and a family with their own secrets, makes this a three stars read rating. With thanks to Pushkin Press and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

Urgent Matters by Paula Rodriguez is pitched as a fast paced thriller but unfortunately I found it to be very slow going.
It was said to be police procedural but that's not the case in my opinion.

I am also not a fan of third person narrative, it was quite confusing and the style of writing was somehow off.

The start was solid and it looked very promising but all of a sudden all these characters started showing up from nowhere, there were too many too fast and I simply couldn't keep up with them.

Maybe it's due to translation or it simply wasn't for me I am sorry to say.

This book was a good crime thriller. The pace was a bit slow but I enjoyed the plot line and the characters. The jumping around was a bit confusing but I got used to it after a while. I did not know this book was originally in Spanish so I think if I would have read it in Spanish it would have been different. To sum, I enjoyed this crime book and reading about life in Buenos Aires.

My sincere apologies. I just could not get into this book because I found the central character unlikeable and very limited in his ability to treat women with respect. Much too soon in the novel, he was spending much too much time wondering about the body of a particular woman and whether or not he could land her in bed. No thank you.

I'd been hoping for something along the lines of Eloisa Díaz's Repentance, but this wasn't it.

I'm giving this a three-star rating because I didn't enjoy it, but I think there definitely an audience for it.

This is supposed to be a thriller with fast-paced action and procedural police work. Well... whoever said this clearly never read this book. It started well with a train crash and a character named Hugo who somehow got lucky and survived the crash without any injury. He also successfully escapes the crash scene. After that, I´m not actually sure what happens. The narration is in the third person but in the present tense so we observe chaotic scenes of Hugo, his family, and some other people. All of these characters are literally thrown into the story and it´s hard to make sense of what is going on. Maybe it´s me having a hard time focusing, maybe the translation is faulty, I don´t know.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy to read. Unfortunately, I could not get engrossed by this story, it jumped around a lot and didn’t make sense in some places. Not one of my favorites, I’m sorry to say.