The Argentinian Virgin: A Wartime Murder Mystery
About this ebook
Her breath is my narcotic.
Her scent is of cloves, of night fevers and spent seed.
What man could resist the Argentinian Virgin?
What woman could bear her horror?
Summer 1941. France is occupied by the Germans but the United States is not at war. Four glamorous young Americans find themselves whiling away the hot days in the boredom of a small Riviera town, while in a half-abandoned mansion nearby, Teresa and Katerina Malipiero, a mother and daughter, wait for Señor Malipiero to complete his business in the Reich and take them home to Argentina.
The plight of the women attracts the sympathy of 'Lucky' Tom Rensselaer and he is seduced by the beauty of Katerina. Tom has perfect faith in their innocence, yet they cannot explain why a sinister Spaniard has been murdered in their home and why Tom must help them dispose of the body without informing the police.
Watching over events is Pat Byrne, a young Irish writer. Twenty years later, when Tom has been reduced from the most handsome, admired and talented man of his generation to a derelict alcoholic, Pat sets out to discover the facts of that fateful summer: the secrets that were hidden and the lies that were told. It is a shocking truth: a tale of murder unpunished and a good man destroyed by those who loved him most.
The Argentinian Virgin is a sensuous novel of erotic fantasy, obsession, jealousy and betrayal set in the dreamlike atmosphere of a Riviera summer in wartime.
Discover more
About the author
Jim Williams first hit the news when his early novels had the uncanny knack of coming true. The Hitler Diaries was published nine months before the celebrated forgery came out in 1983. Farewell to Russia dealt with a nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union months before the Chernobyl disaster. Lara's Child, his sequel to Doctor Zhivago, provoked an international literary scandal and led to his being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Festival. Scherzo, a witty and elegant mystery set in eighteenth century Venice, was nominated for the Booker Prize. All of his fiction has been published internationally. American Values is Jim's fourteenth novel.
From the author:
I was born in Oldham, England, the son of a coal miner and a cotton mill worker and grew up in circumstances that would today be considered poor. However I had loving parents and benefitted from a good education.
I have a degree in law and sociology and speak French, German and Spanish and have a smattering of other languages. Since 1970 I've been a qualified barrister, though I no longer practice. I am a Fellow of the Indian Society of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the founder and a fellow of the Institute of Applied Charlatanry. One of these qualifications is entirely worthless and I leave you to guess which.
The most important fact in my life is that I have had a long and loving marriage to a wonderful wife, and my grown-up family still gather with us most Sundays for a family dinner.
I seem to have a happy, easy-going nature and I take a great deal of pleasure in ordinary things such as walking or gardening. My wife and I enjoy theatre, ballet, opera, paintings and dancing at every possible opportunity.
