- Cunning Folk – Adam L.G. Nevill - 8/10
- Bad Apples – Will Dean – 7/10
- The Winter Road – Adrian Selby – 6/10
- The Dark Place – Damian Vargas – 9/10
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This is one of those “cop on the last day before retirement thrillers”, but it’s a little different from your average detective fayre, and all the better for it.
It’s set in 1970, in the Andalucía region of Southern Spain. Inspector Jesus Garcia, a police officer who tries to do his best and is still haunted by the things he had to do during the Spanish Civil War, is investigating the murder of a man and the disappearance of a youth. The boy happens to be the son of one of the community’s German ex-pats and the man was murdered at a villa belonging to a British man, Harry Blackman, who has recently moved to Spain.
Most of the story takes places over one day, with Garcia interviewing various people to try to get to the bottom of the crimes. But there are plenty of flashbacks – some to during the war where Harry was responsible for tracking down Nazis and then a few to events of the last few days and months where we find out what Harry and Liv, a Norwegian who has been helping him set up his new villa, have been up to. Throw in a shady British consulate official and the impending arrival of The Secret Police from Madrid, and you have a very good thriller.
It's a story that’s not flashy but very well put together. Early on I was thinking that Garcia was portrayed as a Spanish version of Columbo and within half a page, he was turning back asking just one more question! I thought the ending was sad but totally in keeping with Franco’s fascist regime, which of course was still in power in 1970.
I was thinking an 8, but this has enough about it that I’m happy to give it a 9. Looking at Damian Vargas’ other books, they all seem to be about “The Costa Del Crime”, which is something I’m not really that bothered about but given how accomplished
The Dark Place is, I might give one go at some point.
Next up will be
Act of Oblivion.