This is yet another Soho Crime book, which I am liking for the most part. This one, however, really irritated me. It’s well-written. Rebecca Pawel also does a wonderful job of setting the story in post-Civil War Madrid. The Spanish Civil War for those who don’t know, not the U.S. version. I knew so little about that war that I thought this might be a good way to get me interested in it. I was right.
The protagonist starts off the book by coming upon the dead body of a fellow guardia civile in the street, who he just so happens to know from their beginning days in the war. Upset, and not believing the protestations of the woman found near the body that she did not kill him, Carlos Tejeda Alonso Y Léon; simply shoots her in the head. It’s immediately after the war and he’s on the winning side. The mystery being solved is, why did she kill him?
But the fact is, she didn’t. And no, that’s not a spoiler. That’s revealed first thing in the book.
So what we have here is an arrogant, emotional asshole investigating the wrong crime. Add in two more of my not-so-favorite plot devices, too much coincidence and multiple characters spending their time lying and then story being how they cover it up. With all that I cannot recommend the story. It’s also a little odd in its pacing.
But I do recommend reading the book because the descriptions of the atmosphere in Madrid are very nice. If this book doesn’t get you excited about history, particularly the Spanish Civil War, then you’ll be less curious than a clam. Everything from scenes of black marketeers furtively selling potatoes on the main square to the surreptitious helping out of the carbineros when they do not have real money to ride the subway. It’s very very descriptive. So read it.
But the story sucks. And sadly, I think it’s the beginning of a series with the same investigator. I sure hope he’s a different person in later books. It just wasn’t that I didn’t like him. It was the veneer of morality he put on his abominable methods. He’s actually offensive to me.
Title: Death of a nationalist
Author: Rebecca Pawel
Awards: Edgar Allen Poe award for Best First Novel By An American Author 2003
Series: Carlos Tejeda book 1
Publisher: Soho
Format: Paperback
Length: 262 p.
Publication date: 2003
ISBN-10: 1-56947-344-7
Subject: Spain — History — Civil War, 1936-1939 — Fiction
Subject: Nationalists — Fiction
LC classification: PS3616.A957 D43 2003
