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Superintendent Lascano has been set something of an impossible task.

Working under the shadow of the military junta in late 1970's Buenos Aires he is sent to investigate the discovery of two bodies by a roadside.

However, upon arrival at the scene of the scene of the crime Lascano finds the body of a third victim. It is apparent to the superintendent that two of the bodies are victims of the military death squads and so he is forced to turn a blind eye to them. In a climate of violent paranoia and injustice those suspected of being 'subversive' are quickly eliminated. For Lascano attempting to administer justice in this kind of society proves to be an almost insurmountable goal. It soon emerges that the third corpse is that of a Jewish moneylender named Elias Biterman. Lascano is determined to find Biterman's killer and carry out the job he trained to do.

But the pursuit of justice leads the superintendent into a dangerous and shadowy world of corruption, social breakdown and summary executions that puts his own life at risk. Author Ernesto Mallo depicts Buenos Aires as a cruel and capricious city where it seems no-one can ever count themselves entirely safe when its rulers set themselves beyond the law. A gritty, painful portrait of a dystopian culture spinning further and further out of control Needle in a Haystack takes the reader on a harrowing car ride through the ugly recent history of Argentina. Mallo is a former member of the anit-Junta guerrilla movement and his experience informs his deft narrative and offers a tough visceral vision that has the ring of truth about it. Needle in a Haystack is a compelling, blood-stained document of tyranny and brutality told with skill and passion.

Needle in a Haystack

Ernesto Mallo

Bitter Lemon Press, £8.99,9781904738565