NOVEL

São Paulo Blues by Jim Chaffee

Retired private eye Mike Devere is about to get a lesson in the meaning of globalization.

Blindsided when his wife leaves him for a woman, he sells his Austin, Texas detective agency and follows a random dart throw at the world. He hunkers down in São Paulo, Brazil, awaiting divorce and hiding from the tag ends of his life. Speaking no Portuguese and clueless about the culture, he falls in with a cynical Brazilian-American named Eterno Mendes who runs an advertising website for call girls.

Eterno introduces Mike to the enigmatic prostitute Sarah, seeking help in locating her missing girlfriend. Mike hesitates to get involved but stumbles in when they discover Eterno's girlfriend is also missing. He lands in a web of sex, blackmail, and murder more dangerous than any he encountered in his career. Caught in the crossfire of two deadly organizations tied to the US and Brazilian governments fighting from the shadows, hunted by a sadistic American contract killer after Sarah, Mike is forced to carefully thread a maze constructed by hidden players. Joined by Traci, a Brazil-savvy former US Marine and Vietnam war hero turned female, the crew descends into the netherworld of Brazilian internet prostitution.

The novel ranges from the bars, clubs and brothels of São Paulo to the ancient colonial city of Parati, a paradise on the pristine coast of Rio de Janeiro state which transforms into a nightmare from which Devere might not escape. Played out against the casual sex and sudden violence of Brazil, the book is meant for a mature audience not afraid of graphic descriptions of either.

Jim Chaffee has published several short stories, essays and a memoir of his Vietnam experiences. Much his previously published work, including the memoir with additional photos, several short stories, and some essays are exhibited on this site. Other of his work can be found on literary websites such as Amarillo Bay or The Beat, or in print publications like Revelation or the anthologies from the Forth Horseman Press and others.

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Reviews and praise

Sao Paulo Blues by Jim Chaffee is strong, haunting, and sensual, bringing to life the harsh beauty of life in Brazil. Mike, a detective who has called it quits on his business, leaves Texas for Brazil after his wife leaves him for another woman—only to become entangled in something far more sinister than spying on cheating spouses in The Big Stupid.

Someone with big connections is orchestrating the murders and mutilation of prostitutes in Sao Paulo. Mike finds himself sandwiched between the agendas of the local police and Federal police, charged with protecting a seductive Brazilian prostitute named Sarah who has nefarious ties to a closed down night club once at the height of popularity. Mike falls in love with the black-haired beauty, a woman who coldly performs sexual programas with groups of men and then sends money to her mother, who is raising Sarah’s young son.

Mike, working with a man named Eterno who runs a website for escort girls, discovers many secrets even Paulistanos don’t know, meeting up with some evocative characters like Traci, a former Vietnam veteran war hero turned female, who develops a strange crush on Mike and vows to protect him.

Sao Paulo Blues is woven as deftly as a piece of lacework with an iron backbone—a fast-paced, raw and gritty tale with vividly drawn characters who are both human and bizarre. Chaffee realistically creates the exotic detail of Brazilian society with its vast inequities between the rich and poor, while invoking all the sensuality of the lush landscape with its white sands, brilliant stars, and breathing seas. The city’s run down housing, back roads, and luxury hotels are chronicled, connecting crime fiction to the rough textures and cadences of Brazilian life. A modern Dashiel Hammett, Chaffee mixes a unique sensitivity to place, a keen grasp of social conflict, and moments of deadpan comedy, all navigated by a laconic, romantic detective who hasn’t quite given up on love.

--Kelly Jameson, author of the award-winning novel Dead On

www.DeadOnNovel.com

Brutal and pointless. A joyous read.

Betelgeuse Star and Telegraph

"From the opening metaphor you know this romantic gringo throwback will fall into the trap of meddling in a foreign place where he is culturally clueless. But what recently betrayed and divorced man can resist a helpless prostitute and her jovial pitchman? Question is, can he find an exit strategy before it finds him?"

Pookie Snackenberger, author of Fellatio for Fun and Profit

Why there is so much sex?

Mumbai Tattler

About the Author

Jim Chaffee is an old guy, but it wasn't always so. When he was a whippersnapper in high school he read literature and listened to modern jazz and what was then considered modern classical music. He eschewed science and mathematics and was influenced by writers like Celine, Grass, Steinbeck, Burroughs, Ginsburg, Kerouac, Selby, Durrell, Camus, Baldwin, among others. He also got interested in some aspects of politics when the opportunity to observe the ongoing fiasco of the US floundering in Vietnam presented itself. He joined the US Navy instead of wasting time studying literature in college and served in Yokosuka, Japan and Danang, Vietnam as a Hospital Corpsman. He finished his time as a first-aid instructor at OCS in Newport, RI and then got the hell out as soon as an early exit presented itself.

He studied mathematics in college under the GI Bill, using every penny of his GI Bill. He studied mathematical logic and the Moore school of point set topology under Bennie Pearson at The University of Missouri at Kansas City through an MS, also took an MPA, then attended Tulane where he was fortunate enough to take courses in algebra from Laszlo Fuchs and eventually study partial and stochastic differential equations and Lie groups as symmetry groups of differential equations with Steve Rosencrans. He left Tulane to prostitute himself in industry where he was successful mostly with the Global Positioning System and later inertial navigation systems, starting a company providing R&D to government and industry that he eventually shut down because of the absurdity of the very idea of intelligent use of sophisticated technology by the pinheads who control government and politics.

These days he is a gardener who reads and writes.

His short stories, memoirs and essays have appeared in a number of publications. This is his first novel, but he has considered an even more obscure sequel though at present he is at work on two other novels and a couple short stories.

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