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Pascual Rose #3
Gitana
Pascual shoves his chair into place and stows the broom. Antonio has started to play, quietly, a slow mournful siguiriya. Behind the bar Pascual starts on the glasses. He loves the first moments of the shift, in the drowsy late afternoon when the sun still just reaches the walls across the narrow street. Later in the evening Sara will appear. A shadow darkens the door and Pascual looks up from the sink . . . Pascual is a character unique in crime fiction: a former terrorist with many deaths on his conscience who has turned informer and gone underground. He lives a life of sorts in Barcelona, a city whose maze of alleyways provides cover for hunter and hunted alike. But he can never relax: the amiable American tourist, for instance, who turns up in the bar where Pascual works is worringly clued-up - and then, even more worryingly, turns up dead . . .
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 16, 2012
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.”
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.”
January 28, 2016
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.
July 11, 2008
A dark, moody, tale of betrayals, multiple criminal acts, devious minds, shadowy streets and terror. Outstanding.
"The knives are out by the time Pascual gets there, and in two heartbeats there will be blood in the air."
Marvelous
"The knives are out by the time Pascual gets there, and in two heartbeats there will be blood in the air."
Marvelous
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews