Tag Archives: crime novels set in Spain

#BookReview ‘The Anarchist Detective’ by Jason Webster @Jwebsterwriter #crime #Spain

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The Anarchist Detective was the first of the Jason Webster detective series about Max Cámara that I read. It’s not the first in the series, but the third, though this wasn’t a problem, I didn’t feel a lack of back-story. Jason Webster Two story strands combine; a saffron scam, and unearthing the truth about Max’s great-grandfather in the Spanish Civil war [not much of a surprise that, for an author who has written non-fiction about the war]. But there was something missing, for me, something I couldn’t put my finger on. The plot was fine, the history was fine and no doubt accurately portrayed. It was only when I finished the book that I realized what my difficulty was: Max is a Spanish character, written by an Englishman. Albeit an Englishman who lives in Spain, is married to a Spaniard and who speaks the language fluently. But not a Spaniard and I think in this, very Spanish political, emotional, subject, that showed.
I can see a television series here, along the lines of Falcón based on Robert Wilson’s Seville detective Javier Falcón. I can picture the scene in the saffron village in La Mancha, very photogenic. Jason Webster will write a rich series of Max Cámara novels, I’m sure.

Read my reviews of other books in Webster’s Spanish detective series:-
OR THE BULL KILLS YOU #1MAXCÁMARA
A DEATH IN VALENCIA #2MAXCÁMARA
BLOOD MED #4MAXCÁMARA

If you like this, try:-
‘The Blind Man of Seville’ by Robert Wilson #1FALCÓN
‘The Pure in Heart’ by Susan Hill #2SIMONSERRAILLER
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge #1HELENGRACE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE ANARCHIST DETECTIVE by Jason Webster @Jwebsterwriter via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1dc

#BookReview ‘A Death in Valencia’ by Jason Webster @Jwebsterwriter #crime #Spain

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A Death in Valencia by Jason Webster is about more than a singular death, it is an exploration of the nature of death and what constitutes murder. Max Cámara, the Valencia detective introduced by Webster in Or the Bull Kills You, cannot sleep: his street is being dug up as the new Metro line is being built, the summer heat pulsates, and Valencia is crazy as it prepares for the arrival of the Pope. Jason Webster The city buzzes with pro- and anti-Catholic emotions, with pro-life and pro-choice campaigners lining up their arguments for the Pope. Meanwhile the police force prepares security for the visit, as a developer is ripping up the old fisherman’s quarter El Cabanyal to build new apartment blocks. On the first page, a dead body is washed up on the shore. A well-known paella chef.
Max has eaten the chef’s paella but is taken off the case to help hunt for a kidnapped woman, a gynaecologist who performs abortions. The eve of the Pope’s visit is the worst possible time for this to happen. As always seems to happen in crime novels, two seemingly separate incidents are linked. The link, in this case, is carefully plotted so I didn’t spot it until the end. For me, this is a deeper more intelligent novel than the first in the Max Cámara series, perhaps because the author is settling into the genre and the character.
I must add that Valencia simply rocks in this book, it comes alive off the page, the heat, the tension, the grief. I can smell the summer dust.

Read my reviews of other books in Webster’s Spanish detective series:-
OR THE BULL KILLS YOU #1MAXCÁMARA
THE ANARCHIST DETECTIVE #3MAXCÁMARA
BLOOD MED #4MAXCÁMARA

If you like this, try:-
‘Wilderness’ by Campbell Hart #1ARBOGAST
‘The Ice’ by Laline Paull
‘In the Blood’ by Steve Robinson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A DEATH IN VALENCIA by Jason Webster @Jwebsterwriter via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-19d

#BookReview ‘The Blind Man of Seville’ by Robert Wilson @RobWilsonwriter #crime #Spain

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The first time I heard of the Javier Falcón books by Robert Wilson was when the first was dramatized on TV, and unfortunately I missed it. So it was with anticipation that I turned to the first of the four books, The Blind Man of Seville. Robert Wilson My first impression was that it was the longest detective book I’d read in a while, but the reason for this soon became apparent: the back story in Tangiers. In a note at the back of the book, Wilson directs his readers to the full-length diaries he wrote for Francisco Falcón, Javier’s late father, artist, Tangiers resident and key character in The Blind Man of Seville.
It is a complicated novel, entangling the Spanish legal system, bullfighting, the worlds of art and restaurants, Seville, Tangiers and the theme which lurks just below the surface of everyday Spain: the Spanish Civil War. There is something about the first murder which slowly tips Inspector Falcón towards mental breakdown. Like all detectives, the interest lies in his frailties, how he overcomes them and manages to do the day job, how he outwits the criminal mind.
Francisco’s diaries are fascinating; an insight into the Spanish Legion, its time in Morocco and Russia, the brutality and hardships, the sense of brotherhood. At times as Javier reads his father’s story, the story churns his guts; mine too. Anyone who has read anything about the Civil War will anticipate some of the brutality. Wilson skilfully weaves this storyline into the modern-day hunt for a murderer.
This is far from a formulaic detective story. Wilson writes about heavy subjects with a confident hand, and creates atmosphere easily. “The hotel had suffered in the intervening half-century. There was a glass panel missing from one of the doors in his room. Paint peeled off the metal windows. The furniture looked as if it had taken refuge from a violent husband. But there was a perfect view of the bay of Tangier and Falcón sat on the bed and gaped at it, while thoughts of deracination spread through his mind.”

Here are my reviews of the other books in the Javier Falcón series:-
THE SILENT AND THE DAMNED #2FALCÓN
THE HIDDEN ASSASSINS #3FALCÓN
THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD #4FALCÓN

If you like this, try:-
‘Snow White Must Die’ by Nele Neuhaus
‘No Time for Goodbye’ by Linwood Barclay
‘A Fatal Crossing’ by Tom Hindle

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE by Robert Wilson @RobWilsonwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-P1 via @SandraDanby