Brazil, 1 January 2003: President Luis Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva begins fifteen years of left-wing government.
1 January 2019: Jair Bolsonaro is inaugurated, a president of the populist right.
How did it come to this?
A blockbusting novel of our times, Brazilian Psycho introduces and completes Joe Thomas’s acclaimed São Paulo quartet.
Over sixteen years, a diverse cast of characters live through the unfolding social and political drama, setting in motion a whirlwind of plots and counterplots: the murder of a British school headmaster and the consequent cover-up; the chaos and score-settling of the PCC drug gang rebellion over the Mother's Day weekend of 2006; a copycat serial killer; the secret international funding of nationwide anti-government protests; the bribes, kickbacks and shakedowns of the Mensalão and Lava Jato political corruption scandals, the biggest in Brazilian history.
Brazilian Psycho weaves social crime fiction, historical fact, and personal experience to record the radical tale of one of the world’s most fascinating, glamorous, corrupt, violent, and thrilling cities.