Two seemingly unconnected narratives intersect in this blood-soaked novel. One revolves around Joseph, a writer from Richmond, Virginia, who arrives in Bogotá, Colombia, on an assignment in 1991. He seeks a sense of purpose after his wife’s sexual betrayal and is hoping to write a book on the violent chaos roiling the country. There is no dearth of material: “The narcos and the government were all fighting each other in one big orgy of explosions, mutilated bodies, and spectacular assassinations.” Joseph witnesses an attempted murder at close range and is pulled into a dangerous and thrilling world. His guide through the madness is a local journalist named Paula; soon, their professional relationship blossoms into a romance. The second narrative follows Aurelio, a former Romani knife-thrower in a traveling carnival freed from servitude by a landowner named Senor Arcila in Antioquia back in 1948. Arcila hires Aurelio to “break up drunken fights during festivals” and “to guard mule trains of coffee beans” in a town where justice is secured by killing men and setting houses on fire. Aurelio is attracted to a woman named Violeta at first sight, but she happens to be another man’s wife. When she becomes a widow, she needs Aurelio to protect her and her daughter, but she evinces no love or respect for him. The narrative keeps readers hooked with frequent flashbacks and the slow unveiling of secrets (including the story of the suicide mentioned in the title). Casting both Joseph and Aurelio as outsiders, the author craftily uses their naïveté as a plot device; both are too trusting, and this allows people to exploit them. The violent material is heavy, provoking the reader to reflect on how the breakdown of law and order can lead people to live in perpetual fear and conflict. The story also offers a bracing commentary on the ways in which religion ceases to be a moral force when the people at the helm are corrupt.