If I Close My Eyes Now

Prize-winning murder mystery novel in which two boy detectives solve a crime in 1960s Brazil -- reminiscent of Niccolo Ammaniti's "I'm Not Scared, Stand By Me" and "To Kill a Mockingbird." If I close my eyes now, I can still feel her blood on my fingers. If only I had closed my eyes then, or kept my mouth shut, not told anyone about our discovery by the swimming hole, we could have gone back to dreaming about spaceships. A horrifying discovery by two young boys while playing in a mango plantation marks the end of their childhood. As they finally open their eyes to the adult world, they see a place where storybook heroes don't exist but villains and lies do.