Near an air-force base in Peru in the 1950s, a young airman is found tortured and murdered. The subsequent investigation makes an entertaining and brilliantly plotted mystery. In his ninth novel, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa turns to detective fiction yet still inserts his usual themes of guilt versus innocence and despair at the difficulty of being an honest man in a society based on corruption.

This wonderful detective novel is set in Peru in the 1950s. Near an Air Force base in the northern desert, a young airman is found murdered. Lieutenant Silva and Officer Lituma investigate. Lacking a squad car, they have to cajole a local cabbie into taking them to the scene of the crime. Their superiors are indifferent; the commanding officer of the air base stands in their way; but Silva and Lituma are determined to uncover the truth.

Who Killed Palomino Molero, an entertaining and brilliantly plotted mystery, takes up one of Vargas Llosa's characteristic themes: the despair at how hard it is to be an honest man in a corrupt society.