Book 36 of the 50 Book Challenge

Southern Seas by Manuel Vazquez Montalban, 214 pages

Started May23rd, finished May 30th.

I enjoyed this book much more than the previous Pepe Carvahlo novel.  This was back in Barcelona and it felt much better.

Pepe is hired by a rich widow to find out how and why her husband was killed.  It's far from a simple plot with twists and turns aplenty.  Our main character is once again behaving in a manner that can hardly be hailed as gentlemanly.  His behaviour would have him sacked from any legitimate police force.  It's refreshing to have a detective breaking the usual molds.

The characters are well written.  Montalban doesn't go too much into back story but writes them as they behave.  This keeps the book flowing and lets us know around the same as the investigator himself.  I was totally in the dark for most of this story.  It was enjoyable to pick up the pieces as they were dropped by the author.

The setting is quite alien to me.  It is fascinating to read about Barcelona in the years immediately following Franco's death but it isn't an easy place for me to get a grasp on either.  The various political parties and viewpoints make for good reading and in this I feel we don't get too much of that as I felt we did in Murder in the Central Committee.  Though it seems from online bibliographies I have read these books the wrong way around.  

Once again there are marvellous descriptions of food in the story.  Pepe has a great appreciation for food and wines.  Shame he isn't real, he would be a great guide to Barcelona and it's cuisine.  After this I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series, Offside.  Though that's a fair way down the tower yet.

4 out of 5 pawprints

Total so far, Books - 36, Pages -10,908

Next - The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly