This is a novel of guilt and innocence and the impossibility of justice in an unequal society. In Peru, an airman is found brutally murdered. Two policemen set out to investigate, but they are not glamorous detectives; they do not even have a squad car and have to hitch rides on chicken trucks and cajole a cabdriver to take them to the scene of the crime. The author has written Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , The War at the End of the World , The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta , Captain Pantoja and the Special Service and The Perpetual Orgy .