Bea Osa

True crime at its finest. It’s wonderful that journalists write true crime in such a literary language.

To that list of remarkable authors, we must add Beatriz Osa on her own merit, for her book Scent of Death in Pioz (Alrevés, 2020) ranks among the genre’s best—thoroughly documented, profoundly insightful, and of course, elegantly written.

Narrated with countless harrowing details, it combines finely crafted prose with impeccable research and meticulous fact-checking. Her writing wastes no words, no paragraphs filled just to pad the pages. Every word is carefully placed with purpose. Without a doubt, we face a great writer who masters the art of storytelling. This is a nonfiction work, a dark and dreadful tale—arguably one of the most chilling in true crime reportage.

Beatriz Osa is one of those crime journalists so devoted to their cause, so rigorous and professional, that they sometimes forget their lives exist beyond the cases. Some stories imprint themselves on their souls, becoming scars that ache when the wind changes, though they never reveal their wounds behind the stoic masks that veil the inevitable empathy on their faces. Her compassion. Beatriz Osa embodies all of this—and more: a brilliant writer debuting with a book of terrible content, yet so well written and with a story so hypnotic because of the emotional weight carried by its wicked protagonist, it will be irresistible to any reader. The title alone chills the spine: Scent of Death in Pioz (Alrevés).