Blood of the Wicked — Leighton Gage

The first book in Leighton Gage's critically acclaimed police procedural series set in Brazil
 
Chief Inspector Mario Silva of Brazil's Federal Police is a good cop in a bad system -- Brazil's justice system is rife with corruption, and constantly a beat behind criminal elements. But Silva and his team of colorful sidekicks -- baby-faced Gonçalves, who is irresistible to lady witnesses; chubby, crass Nuñes; Mara Carta, the chief of intelligence with a soft spot for Mario -- crack their difficult and sometimes ugly cases with pizazz.
 
In the interior of Brazil, landless workers battle the owners of vast fazendas. When a visiting archbishop is assassinated, Mario Silva is called upon to investigate. Then a newspaper owner, a TV journalist, a landowner's son, and a priest are brutally killed. In a country where dead street kids are known as "hams," justice is scarce.