Law of Return
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
This murder mystery set in Fascist Spain is “a colorful, thrilling story about loyalty and love” (Detroit Free Press).
Spain, 1940: Lt. Carlos Tejada has been transferred to Salamanca, where he studied law before the Spanish Civil War. His new duties include monitoring parolees—former professors who were fired for protesting against Franco.
The policeman’s old love, Elena Fernandez, has also lost her job because of her political leanings, and has returned home to Salamanca from Madrid. Her father, once a distinguished classics professor, is now one of the parolees—and has just received a letter from a Jewish friend, begging for help to cross into Spain from France to avoid being forcibly repatriated to Nazi Germany. Professor Fernandez cannot violate his parole by traveling—so Elena goes in his stead, and not longer after does her path cross with the lieutenant’s, and soon they will find themselves involved in a murder case with far-reaching implications.
From an Edgar Award–winning author, this is a “strongly atmospheric” novel filled with history and intrigue (The Baltimore Sun).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like Pawel's impressive debut, Death of a Nationalist (2003), this sequel makes fine use of local color and scenic detail to evoke its unusual setting, post Civil War Spain ("The fields were the color of cornhusk dolls, not a healthy golden yellow, but a pale, anemic reminder of green"). Alas, the plot doesn't carry the same punch as its predecessor. Series hero Lt. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Le n, a member of the feared and detested Guardia Civil in Madrid, has been transferred to Salamanca to monitor parolees. When one of his charges, Manuel Arroyo D az, disappears, Tejada follows the missing man's trail to Biarritz and is reunited with his former lover, Elena Fern ndez. Elena is now involved in a political matter concerning her classics professor father and his Jewish friend, Professor Meyer, who's in danger of being forced to return to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, D az turns up dead with his head bashed in, his body identified from the cards in his wallet. Tejada investigates, but soon realizes more is at stake than mere murder. The author captures the anomie of postwar Spain while eschewing excess bloodshed, but the deliberate pace and relative inaction will frustrate readers expecting a more conventional crime novel. One can only hope Lt. Tejada's next assignment will prove more absorbing.
