TROPICAL SHADE 
a novel by Ataide Tartari 
(approx. word count: 50,000 words) 
  

Year 1985. The remains of Josef Mengele are found in S?o Paulo, Brazil, where he 
had lived incognito for more than 15 years. Investigating the Angel of Death's local 
connections, the Falasha agent David Samen discovers that one of his disciples is 
alive and well -- and carrying on with his macabre medical experiments started in
WWII... 
  

THE PROTAGONIST: 

David Samen is a Jew from Ethiopia, a Falasha. He spent most of his youth in 
Angola, a country he had to flee during the civil war in 1975. Imprisoned in his native 
Ethiopia and rescued from it in 1977, he joined the Israeli intelligence in the early 
1980's. In 1985, he works for the Nazi-hunting Rosenthal Center and, undercover, for 
the Israeli government. Without family and close friends, he wants to have a life. 
  

OTHER CHARACTERS: 

Roy Swart (POV Character) is a black American that moved to Brazil fleeing a failed 
marriage. He is a somewhat recluse, craven man who suffers from delusions. 

Gil Moreno (POV Character) is a Brazilian police investigator. Like most Brazilian 
mulattoes, he sees himself as a white person. He is finishing law school, dates a 
Jewish girl, and longs to be a marshal. 

Bet?nia, a Mulatto woman in her thirties, is Roy's housemaid. She was Mengele's 
housemaid-and-mistress until his death. 

Doctor Ernst Shultz, the aging disciple of Josef Mengele. Known as Der Professor 
during WWII, he did whitening experiments with Ethiopian Jews. Now he employs 
natives in his experiments, but uses his medical knowledge to help the poor. 
  

PLOT: 

 1. David Samen is at the Rosenthal Center offices in New York when news about 
Mengele arrives. After a meeting, the Nazi hunter Ben Rosenthal sends Samen and 
a medical examiner to Brazil. 
 2. Roy Swart is in a plain clinic in a small island on the Brazilian coast. He has just 
been through a plastic surgery to thin his nose and lips. His skin has been whitened 
by the same physician, Dr. Ernst Shultz. Back home, his maid Bet?nia tells him 
about the sudden fame of Dr. Shultz's old friend, the man she knew as Pedro.
Reading the magazine article about it, Roy learns that the remains of Josef Mengele 
have just been found in S?o Paulo, and that Pedro was his alias. 
 3. Samen arrives in S?o Paulo. His host Gil Moreno leads him to the cemetery 
where Mengele was supposedly buried. Accompanying Gil, Samen goes to the 
house where the Angel of Death lived. Talking to the neighbors, Samen learns that 
Mengele had a native mistress called Bet?nia.  
 4. Roy goes back to Dr. Shultz's with the magazine in his hand. The doctor assures 
him that he is also surprised with the news. Roy decides that this problem is none of 
his concern and proposes a business deal to the doctor: to bring black American 
clients for his whitening treatment. 
 5. Samen and Gil drive to the small island in Angra do Reis where Mengele's 
mistress now lives. At her new employer's cottage, they inquire Bet?nia about her life 
with Mengele but don't learn anything new about him or his Nazi friends. 
 6. Back home, Roy learns that a policeman and a foreign agent had been inquiring 
his maid, but she did not mention Dr. Shultz. He takes a boat to the continent and 
calls his sister in New York, telling her about his business project and his new looks. 
 7. After the confirmation of the ID of Mengele's remains, the Israelis ask Samen to 
go after his Nazi connections in Brazil. 
 8. With the photo of an Auschwitz-like watchtower in his hands, Samen goes to a 
coffee plantation in the mountain range. He finds the tower and learns that, in the 
1960's, Mengele and a mysterious friend played in it like children. Back in S?o Paulo, 
he tries to find the safe deposit where Mengele kept his money. 
 9. Samen flies to New York. Roy takes the same flight and, in NY, he goes to his 
sister's and her tour agency. 
 10. In NY, Samen meets Leon, his Israeli intelligence contact, and delivers his report 
to the Rosenthal Center. In a barbershop, he learns that a tour agency is selling a 
whitening treatment in Angra dos Reis, Brazil. Recalling the island where he'd seen 
some weird white-skinned blacks, Samen decides to call Gil in Brazil, asking him to 
check it out. 
 11. As Gil is going to spend the weekend with his girlfriend in Angra, he takes some 
time to visit the small island where he and Samen had been questioning Mengele's 
mistress. Bet?nia now tells Gil everything she knows about Dr. Shultz. Gil calls 
Samen. 
 12. In the tour agency, Roy and his sister are receiving prospective customers for 
their "whitening tour" to Brazil. One of them is Samen, using an alias. 
 13. Samen and Leon investigate Roy. They don't find any Nazi connection, only a 
record a mental illness. 
 14. While his sister keeps organizing the tour in New York, Roy flies to Brazil. With 
the workers finishing the expansion of his clinic, Dr. Shultz needs cash to pay them. 
He asks Roy to drive him to S?o Paulo. 
 15. With the tour agency bugged by Leon, Samen learns that Roy and Dr. Shultz 
have gone to a bank in S?o Paulo; he asks Gil to follow them. Inside the doctor's 
safe deposit, Roy sees a small fortune in rings and golden teeth. 
 16. Samen receives a picture of Dr. Shultz from Gil. In the Rosenthal Center, he 
learns that the Nazis had done secret racial experiments with Falashas in a clinic at 
Koeningshutte, and that Der Professor's identity was never discovered. 
 17. Confused, Roy finds comfort in Bet?nia's arms; she becomes his mistress. 
 18. Samen goes to Florida; he interviews a witness who had once met Der 
Professor at Koeningshutte. The witness does not identify Dr. Shultz, but Samen 
assumes he did. 
 19. Pushed by his uncle, a police marshal, Gil decides to lead the case in order to 
promote his career. 
 20. With Bet?nia heartening him, Roy asks his sister to bring the first group of 
clients. 
 21. Leon and Ben Rosenthal send Samen back to Brazil. He joins the whitening 
tour. 
 22. Nauseated, Roy helps Dr. Shultz to kill some monkeys in order to produce more 
whitening drug. The doctor ends up telling him about his experiments with Ethiopian 
Jews during WWII. 
 23. Roy receives his clients at Rio's airport and drives them to Angra dos Reis. 
When Samen arrives in the island, Bet?nia recognizes him. He kills her. 
 24. In S?o Paulo, Gil learns that Samen has returned to Brazil without telling him. 
He suspects that he wants to murder the Nazi doctor and get his gold. He goes to 
Angra. 
 25. In the night, Samen leaves the hotel and meets Leon.  Learning what Samen 
has done to Bet?nia, Leon decides to hasten the execution of the plan. Taking a 
boat, they arrive in the island in the middle of the night. As Der Professor realizes 
what is going on, however, he takes a cyanide capsule. Fleeing the scene, Leon
wounds Roy while Samen takes the doctor's whitening drug away with him. 
 26. When Gil arrives, Samen is gone. The Nazi doctor and Bet?nia are buried in 
Angra. With Gil, Roy goes to the safe deposit in S?o Paulo. They open and find it 
empty. Broken, Roy will try to resume his life in New York. Gil will ask Interpol to hunt 
Samen. 
 27. Samen is living in the small town of Araraquara, Brazil. He is a light-skinned 
Mulatto farmer now, and his name is Marcelo, born in Angola. In his daughter's 
birthday party, he receives his neighbors, some of them aging Germans. Two days 
later, he mails the birthday party's photos to Leon. - END.