It is a night racked with violence in an unnamed Latin American country. Three men brave the war-ravaged streets to meet at the opulent home of a friend, the famed surgeon Daniel Pacheco, for their semiannual gathering. As a lavish meal is served by the sullen housekeeper, interest centers on the photograph of an intriguingly beautiful young woman. Spellbinding revelations of erotic obsession and betrayal unfold, interrupted by the increasing bloodshed that presses closer to Pacheco’s door.
           
Stephen Dobyns has written a provocative novel of desire, lust, depravity, and danger—a classic thriller that holds you tightly in its grasp until its shattering conclusion. “An allegory of corruption, stunningly told.” –Los Angeles Times
 
“The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini is wickedly good, combining a poet’s eye for the luminous detail with a thriller writer’s sense of narrative compulsion… It is a work of art.” –The Boston Globe
 
“[Dobyns’s] new book masterfully combines his gift for cliff-hanging narrative with his dark and meditative sensibility. Specifically, the muse of contemporary Latin American literature--the spirit of magic realism--glides through this fascinating tale of power and sexual obsession, self-deception and greed…. With its sinuous narrative and cool atmosphere of the fantastic, reminiscent of the haunting tales of Jorge Luis Borges, this novel is as spellbinding and resonant as an unsettling dream.” –Publishers weekly
 
“Stephen Dobyns is one of the most imaginative and fanciful authors of our time, and he once more demonstrates this in The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini.” –San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Gripping and theatrical.” –The New Yorker
 
“A ripe melodrama of erotic obsession, set somewhere in Latin America… Dobyns' spirited exercise in mystification has a rich, theatrical allure. –Kirkus
 
“A dark, existential thriller by the author of the Charlie Bradshaw mysteries. Highly recommended.” –Library Journal