Third in the taut, menacing series of thrillers set in Barcelona, from the author of LYING CRYING DYING.
Pascual is keeping his head down, tending bar in a hole-in-the-wall tavern in Barcelona's Old City and consorting with Gypsies and other outsiders. One of them, an enigmatic flamenco cantaora named Sara, has seriously weakened his resolve to avoid sentimental adventures. He is just beginning to think he has outrun his past when an American journalist turns up dead with Pascual's name in his pocket. The police want to know why, and when a second killing strikes at the heart of his sheltering community, Pascual knows he cannot hide his head in the sand. He will need all his old survival skills as well as a little help from his Gypsy friends to unravel an old but still potent scandal before it destroys him and everyone he loves.
Pascual is an unusual character. He’s a reformed terrorist. And he’s still alive. After years as an underground courier for some of the worst middle-eastern criminal elements, ferrying money, drugs and who knows what else throughout Europe, Pascual suffered a crisis of conscience and bared his soul to the authorities. His actions took down several important terrorist networks and made him a marked man for as long as he could manage to stay alive. For years in the home city of his youth, Barcelona, he’s been keeping a very low profile. With it’s warren of old-city cobbles and hard stone byways, it’s a fitting place for Pascual to go to ground.
He is ever on the watch for his past to come roaring back, spitting bullets. Even though he now works in a neighborhood bar, and has been out of the main stream for years, he is still wary, as he should be. And, he’s falling in love.
The author has fashioned a compelling thriller in this series of dark, moody, and bitter-sweet novels about the wounded and fascinating characters who drift in and out of the life of this man, an individual who lives always on the edge of violence, always walking near the edge of the dark chasm. This is a novel to be tasted, to be savored. Undeniably dark, even when the harsh sun of the Iberian peninsula is straight overhead, the writing is powerful and the pace and language in the well-crafted novel pulls us inexorably along, page after page. As mistakes pile up and emotional turmoil mounts, as secret after secret is revealed, we are led to believe only total murky disaster awaits. Yet, in the very end, as Pascual remarks, “No more secrets. I made a promise.”
Another excellent book by Allen Salter, aka Sam Reaves, aka Dominic Martell. Wonderfully written with an elaborate plot and perhaps too elaborate or a wrap up. I hated to see it end and I paced myself slowly, especially since, with this novel, I have now read all the published books of this author and have no more to look forward too.