I picked up this book off the street in San Francisco - it was the best-looking of a pile that someone had put out on the sidewalk. I should have left it there.The plot is poor, the characters pathetic. It's all very derivative. Even the "authentic-sounding" "Ochos Rios" is lousy Spanish. "Eight rivers" is "Ocho Rios" (no S on ocho) in Spanish. In fact, there is an "Ochos Rios" in Jamaica. Maybe he should have set it in Jamaica - there is certainly no sign that the author visited Uruguay - it might as well be set in Iowa for all the real local detail we get.