The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories

by Teresa Solana, Peter Bush (Translator)

Ingenious, always witty and sometimes gruesome short stories by one of Spain’s best-known crime writers.

An impressive and very funny collection of stories by Teresa Solana but the fun is very dark indeed. The oddest things happen. Statues decompose and stink out galleries, two old grandmothers are vengeful killers, a prehistoric detective on the verge of becoming the first religious charlatan trails a triple murder that is threatening cave life as the early innocents knew it. The collection also includes a sparkling web of Barcelona stories--connected by two criminal acts--that allows Solana to explore the darker side of different parts of the city and their seedier inhabitants.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Spain, Thriller, Anthologies

210 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2013

About the author

Teresa Solana lives in Barcelona. Born in 1962, she studied philosophy and worked as a literary translator and essayist. She has written several novels kept quietly in her drawer. A Not So Perfect Crime, her first published title, won the 2007 Brigada 21 Prize for the best Catalan mystery novel.

Reviews

[Adina · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5* rounded up because I loved them.

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer is a collection of funny, criminal short stories. The Catalan writer managed to make almost every story interesting, which is rare. I saw many did not appreciate this collection but it suits my dark sense of humor just fine.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this collection of short stories by Teresa Solana (translated by her husband) is just a hella fun smattering of crime vignettes. We've got prehistoric detectives, sunscreen wearing vampires, murderous grannies and soap opera loving ghosts. Gleefully black social satire that shifts gears for the second half. Here Solana teases the reader to make the connections across these stories. Less fantastical and instead focused on a small section of Barcelona. (I can't help but think of George from the movie Booksmart smugly pronouncing Barcelona with the spanish lisp - I imagine him cowering somewhere at the pivotal pharmacy) It's still got that playful style, satirical noir as it were, despite being anchored in the "real" world.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ham-handed and obvious, flat in humour and affect, this was a disappointing collection of sketches that barely merit the name "short stories". I've heard such good things about Solana's mystery series that I'll give one of those novels a try but I'm unwilling to read any short work by her again.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of short stories written by Solana and translated by Peter Bush. The stories all have one thing in common, Solana’s tongue-in-cheek macabre wit and a sense of truth within her pithy tales.

The stories are split into two sections: Blood, Guts and Love, and Blood Connections.

Blood, Guts and Love

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer – I wonder if this was picked as the first story because the title is so unusual and draws attention. It isn’t the one I would have picked to start the book with, but it is one of the more bizarre ones. Can you imagine prehistoric humans trying out their Sherlockian skills of deduction?

The Son-in-Law – This one was a favourite, perhaps because it is something I would consider doing, although I would pick a cleaner way of getting rid of any evidence. Little old vigilante or justice warrior for the oppressed and the beaten?

Still Life No. 41 – The sad thing about this story is the fact it could absolutely happen, especially in our world of performance art and pretentious supposed art experts with made-up language to make it seem as if a blob on a canvas is indeed the work of an underrated genius.

Happy Families – What a lovely thought, that the previous unlucky inhabitants of a mansion should endeavour to protect and keep new ones safe, even if it’s only because some of them want to watch reality tv.

I’m a Vampire – Is it still murder if the victim is a bloodsucking killer? Are you ridding the planet of a danger if you kill a vampire or are you just as bad as the next serial killer?

Connections

Flesh-Coloured People – Interesting slap back at society and the cross-race effect. The cross-race effect suggests that we are more likely to recognise people who are of the same race as ourselves, and less likely to do so with other races because we think they all look alike. Very important when it comes to witnesses of crime and also the reason many innocent people are ‘identified’ as possible culprits.

The Second Mrs Appleton – Proof that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and that sometimes you end up with the person you deserve. Just because a diamond is more flashy and seductive it doesn’t mean it is worth more than the more understated gem.

Paradise Gained – I guess this is what you would call an ironic twist. A thief asking another thief to take care of his money and then being surprised when the inevitable happens, and yet he still doesn’t learn his lesson.

Mansion with Sea views – What are the chances of kindred spirits doing each other a murderous favour without even being aware of each other? But is he the same, should all killers be judged by the same criteria?

I Detest Mozart – The irony in this story is the fact the killer is punished by the hell which made her kill in the first place. Her own private inferno on a loop until she dies.

Birds of a Feather – Never underestimate any person, but especially not those you think are incapable of sinking to the lowest level to get what they want or in this case to get their revenge. Just because it looks like a Siamese cat it doesn’t mean there isn’t a lion hidden underneath waiting to devour you.

Barcelona, Mon Amour – You can take the girl out of the city, but never the city out of the girl. You also can’t just leave old habits behind, somehow they are always lurking in the shadows waiting to be picked back up again.

But There was another solution – Sometimes it is better to just forget and get on with things. Why mess up a good business opportunity just for the sake of being on the right side of the law, especially when you were never quite on the right side to begin with.

The stories are all amusing and ironic, the common thread between them is the where and the love for the city. The other element that connects them is the base nature of human beings. Nobody is perfect in this shiny polished world and everyone has secrets they want to hide. Some more than others perhaps.

Each story is a small universe in itself, despite there being connections along the way. You can read one and be satisfied and return for the next one a little later. A wee bit like a box of chocolates and never knowing whether to expect a soft caramel or nut in the middle, and always wanting to go back for one more morsel.

It’s noir with a flair for the more macabre, but with a solid sense of surroundings. The reader can imagine sitting and watching each drama unfold. Solana moves between cute and crass to bold and timid, and yet the vivid imagery remains the focal point in every story. It has certainly convinced me to pick up one of her novels to read.
*I received a free copy courtesy of the publisher and author*

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short stories by a Catalan female writer (originally written, I think, in Catalan). Quirky, intelligent, fun, and often absurd, all things I personally love. And don't be fooled; Despite a book cover that touts her as the top Catalan mystery writer, they're in no way "procedurals" a la Christie etc. (a good thing, to my mind). A lot of references to places and things Catalan, which are not familiar to me at all, but were interesting enough to take the time to look up and contemplate what's gone so wrong in my life that I've been to Barcalona :).

The first half are stand-alone humorous stories about murder, and they're quite good. Unexpected premises--especially the first and eponymous story. A lot reminds me of Christopher Moore (esp his vampire books).

The second half greets the reader with a challenge: find the thread in the stories, some of which will be obvious, some won't. To my mind, Solana implies a level of connectedness that unites all the stories beyond the basic fact that most of the main characters are assholes (albeit bumbling and forgiveable) and the recurring appearance of different characters and events. I haven't done a lot of Reddit rabbit-hole chasing or even looking at the reviews here (most of which seem to only catch the most obvious interlinks of the stories), and I'm likely missing something; if anyone can provide more insight, would love a spoiler, just respond here. But it left me feeling like I had missed something big, given that the author made a point of writing a three page missive to the reader imploring him/her to find the links...

Other than that, the main fault I found was the extreme Brit-centricness of the translation itself; I listen to enough English news/sport that I'm familiar with it, but the use of sometimes obscure slang was quite jarring to this American reader. Though I'm certain that is even more common for the British reader reading translations by Americans. And by all means, the translator's Catalan is better than mine, and more than enough to communicate the humor and good naturedness of these stories.

Strongly recommend, especially if you're looking for a light, fun read and aren't opposed to--or even might enjoy--a little blood sport.

[Kal ★ Reader Voracious · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a unique collection of short stories! I enjoyed I'm a Vampire and Happy Families the most out of this collection, but found each of the stories to be refreshingly creative. Each short story is a quick read and span a wide array of dark topics: from the perspective of ghosts to that of a kind-of-reformed vampire to modern "art."

I struggled quite a bit with the writing style, the short and at times abrupt sentences distracted me from the narrative; however, I think that may be a result of the translation itself as it is consistent. Since I can read Spanish, I would be interested to read one of these stories in the original language. The voice of each narrator was eerily similar in "tone" despite each story being completely different, and I am not sure if that is the translator's choice, the author's, or a combination of the two.

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[Nadine in California · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the humor that comes from inserting a modern sensibility into a historical setting, so I couldn't pass up a book with this title. While I liked some of the stories very much, the title story didn't do enough with the premise, or do it as well as my two favorites - the title story in Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, and the Norwegian comedy series Norsemen - both set in Viking times. That said, all the stories were quick and humorous reads - I love her way with murderous women :) My favorite story in the first section was Happy Families but the second section had the best stories by far, made even more entertaining by the little connections between them. My favorites were Flesh-Coloured People, The Second Mrs. Appleton and But There Was Another Solution.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories is an eccentric, funny and clever collection of twisted, off-the-wall short stories, covering a range of ghoulish dealings and seedy crimes. I must admit that I don’t think I had read any Catalan or Spanish fiction before but this was the perfect place to start!

The first section of Teresa Solana‘s collection is entitled Blood, Guts and Love and contains five quirky tales including the titular Serial Killer and each has an unusual or surprising narrator. I don’t want to say more because of spoilers but each story has a unique voice and an amusing and/or satisfying twist in the tale.

My favourites from this section were The First Prehistoric Serial Killer, The Son-in-Law and Still Life No. 41. The last one in particular was huge fun.

The second section, entitled Connections, is a series of stories which are interlinked in minor or major ways and the humorous style continues here, with an undercurrent of greed, selfishness and definitely of karma!

Connections is very cleverly constructed and my favourite stories here were The Second Mrs Appleton, Mansion with Sea Views, I Detest Mozart and But There Was Another Solution.

Each story across the whole book showcases some unique characters: some are appealing and sympathetic, some are very wrong but for the right reasons and some are simply bad to the bone.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories and I will definitely look out for more from Teresa Solana.

[Zaide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious. We have a duo of murderous grannies determined to bump off the abusive husband of one of their daughters, a house full of ghosts who are desperate to catch up on their soaps and gossip about their human residents, and a vampire who laments the disappointments of the 21st century (namely the lack of virgins to feed off and the presence of air con making it harder to slip through open windows). It’s hilariously quirky and utterly bonkers and I loved it.

My one criticism is that the first half (“Blood, Guts and Love”) was better than the second half (“Connections”). They were both good fun, and I did enjoy the subtle little links between all the stories in the second half, but it was missing a little of the clever humour of the first half.

Definitely recommend. The stories are quick and entertaining and it provided the perfect relief between serious/heavy reads!

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories is a collection of short stories, many of them connected with a noir sensibility. The title story opens the anthology and it is hilarifying. Someone is smashing the heads of tribesmen while they sleep. After the third death, the chief suspects something is amiss and sets our Stone Age Sam Spade on the case. With no pretense of authenticity, the story is full of anachronisms that are pure entertainment. This is a light-hearted triple homicide. As to the solution, well, he thinks he solved it.

There’s another story with some very class-conscious ghosts that is quite amusing and a vampire who has simply lived too long, finding the modern era not respectful enough.


I enjoyed The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories a lot, loving the sharp humor and the completely absurd stories. It’s a short, fast collection of stories that grab you instantly, whirl you away to Absurdistan and deposit you back in reality for another ride. It’s fun and sometimes that everything you need.

The connected stories that center on Barcelona have their own element of the absurd, giving us the perspective of the hapless woman who decides to make ends meet by renting a portion of her home to vacationers who turn out to be international criminals or the translator who happens to be assigned to translate their meeting. Solano consistently resists doing the usual.

I received a copy of The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories from the publisher through Edelweiss.

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories at Bitter Lemon Press
Teresa Solano at Bitter Lemon Press

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Anne-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully absurdist and quirky but overall not very memorable.

The first section were individual stories often dealing with murder. I particularly enjoyed “Still Life No. 41” and “Happy Families”. The second section was a series of interconnected stories, and finding the common threads was definitely fun. My favourites would be “The Second Mrs. Appleton”, “Paradise Gained” and “Birds of a Feather.”

[oshizu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. A collection of short stories set in and around Barcelona, some of them with interconnected characters but all with inconclusive "endings." This book was just okay, except for the "I Am a Vampire" story, which I greatly enjoyed.

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a mixture of both quite odd and charming stories. My least favorite was the first one so for anyone who tires and then puts it down after the first one should give the second one a chance. My favorite is the one about the ghosts and the second half is clever in how all the stories involve side characters in each other's stories and connect.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

'm grateful to Bitter Lemon Press for an advance e-copy of this book.

This is a collection of very sharp, often fantastical, and always entertaining stories, many of which place women's viewpoints or positions to the fore. These stories manage to have, at the same time, a cool mastery of the everyday and also - when Solana switches context slightly or brings in some detail previously avoided - their own deliciously skewed viewpoint, a bigger picture that comes into focus.

For example, the titular story, The First Prehistoric Serial Killer, seems a very playful piece - at first. A serial killer apparently strikes among a tribe of Neanderthal people. Over a period of months, three men are found at the back of the cave with their heads beaten in. The chief appoints one of the tribe to investigate. Solana touches on the conventions and language of the traditional detective narrative, hitting deliberately anachronistic notes (such as references to autopsies, psychological profiles and scientific evidence, or the order "Come on, Mycroft, [the name of the 'detective'] stop being such a Sherlock and get cracking". Underneath, though, there is a more serious mystery - one that affects the balance between the men and women of the tribe. Can it be that the deaths are connected with this? can the secret be preserved?

Another story that turns on the relations between men and women, The Son-in-Law sees an elderly mother become concerned by the way her son-in-law is treating her daughter. Notable for its well thought-out detail, as well as the macabre twist at the end, this story shows how ways will be found runs oppressive social structures and feeble law enforcement to ensure justice.

Still Life No 41 represents another theme in the book - the self-obsessed protagonist, who sees everything very much from their own point of view. Here it's a gallery director, and she's the most self-centred and entitled character I've met in a story for a long time. Running a gallery because of the influence of her daddy, she has to accept blame when things go wrong. We start the story feeling some sympathy - she's lost her job - but as the awful details emerge all this drains away, at least nearly all. Solana is good at showing a piece of terrible behaviour but still keeping the reader sympathising. So for example, in Flesh-Coloured People, a young woman woman has witnessed a shooting. She's being interviewed by the police about this and her inner monologue suggests, again, total self-absorption - from a distancing narrative about the ethnicity of the killers to a coldly calculating plan to select mugshots at random so she can get away to attend a concert. But then... well, Solana shows us something about Eulària and the effect of what she's seen that suddenly puts the rest of the story in a different context.

Flesh-Coloured People is one of a group of stories subtitled Connections, which are loosely described here as "Barcelona Noir". ("...that delinquent scenario of intrigue on seedy side streets, in warehouses on the city's outskirts or down-at-heel bars...") They are interrelated and form a larger, loose narrative. So for example the next story, The Second Mrs Appleton, is linked to Flesh-Coloured People as well as being a self-contained little tragedy of its own, turning on the relation between a British diplomat and his trophy wife. It's a sad little piece, showing neither partner in a very good light and raising sympathy for all concerned (including the first Mrs Appleton).

Happy Families and I'm a Vampire are two stories that - while not connected - share a common theme: they both explore class in a modern Catalonia that - thanks to that element of the an elements of the supernatural - literally has deep roots in the past. In one case, we have a 900 year old vampire, in the other, a family (tribe? coven?) of ghosts haunting a country mansion who have, some of them, been there for hundreds of years. In both cases, there is a struggle to come to terms with the present day. Both stories are witty and spare, allowing one to fill in the details from popular mythology and focussing on peculiar local features (like German bombing in the Civil War) that matter to the story.

Paradise Gained is another of the Connections stories, and I spotted the connection which ties together Sergi's crime boss Uncle with the earlier stories. Rather than being noir as such, Paradise Gained has a slight atmosphere of Ealing comedy as criminals try to hide a large quantity of cash. Mansion with Sea Views has a more direct connection, and brings up a theme of concealment, of long-hidden crime and of knowing where the bodies are buried which goes back to that idea of a hidden history, of crimes suppressed. Rafael is a darker figure than Sergi, more adapt at concealment, sharper to suspect, a man with secrets.

I Detest Mozart is one of the most standalone stories in this part of the book, its connection with the others being limited to two characters having a nodding acquaintance. But in its theme - the relations between men and women, secrets, the toxic politics of the Franco era poisoning the present, concealed crimes - it is squarely in line with the rest and its portrayal of an elderly widow whose life has, literally, been stolen by these things but who has created her own way of getting by - is both tender and chilling.

Birds of a Feather is also less 'connected' (I think). It's the story of six women serving time (which gave a nice resonance, for this UK reader, because of the long-running sitcom, albeit that was about prisoners' wives). The new arrival, referred to as "posh pussy", is stand-offish as well as apparently wealthy - making her an easy target, you'd think. But appearances can deceive...

Barcelona, Mon Amour and But There Was Another Solution are more closely connected both with each other and with the wider 'connection' theme, and together they represent something of a climax to the sprawling underworld theme of the collection. In Barcelona, Mon Amour a woman who has made her living as a translator for criminal syndicates is called back to Barcelona to undertake one last job, prompting her to reflect on why she ever thought she wanted to moulder in the countryside. It's as much a tribute to the life of the city as it is a perfect vignette of the gangster life. But there was Another Solution gives us almost a different view of the same events. The chief protagonists of the two stories never actually meet, but at the same time they are living around and profiting from the same events in different ways, almost a microcosm of the Connections stories as a whole.

Overall, these are excellent stories giving a very distinct view of life in the 21st century, haunted as it is by the recent and less recent past. I should also mention the translation by Peter Bush. This reads excellently in English, ranging in tone to suit the story from the slightly fatuous in the more comic of the stories to a steely note in the noirish parts.

[Ruth Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun. Short stories with clever different ideas. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the thrills of reading good mystery novels (and, as in this case, good short story compilations) is the way that they demonstrate the author's awareness of a particular location and what its culture and history and geography offer when it comes to crime fiction.  And it so happens that this author is Barcelona's Best-selling crime writer, which means we get a lot of insight about the complexities of Catalan society as it relates to general shadiness.  If that was the only thing this offered, this book would be good enough, but the author manages to write with a great deal of wit and verve and has a keen grasp of characters who are continually forced to deal with the unexpected.  As an added bonus, not only do we get an enjoyable set of stories, many of which deal with Barcelona, but some of them are connected as well in interesting ways relating to the same set of crimes and characters that really fill out the world of the author nice and would likely make for a worthwhile contemporary Barcelona noir film with highly entertaining elements thrown into the general murder and mayhem that goes on.

The stories offer some surprises.  The first five stories are labeled as Blood, Guts, and Love.  We begin with "The First Prehistoric Serial Killer," which looks at a detective dealing with a series of connected murders related to troglodyte feminist theory relating to sexuality.  Then comes "The Son-In-Law," which deals with the attempt to disguise the murder of a wife-beating relative.  After that comes my favorite story of the book, "Still Life No. 41," where a murdered artist's own body is seen by mistake by an art museum as an exhibit, at least until it starts to decay.  "Happy Families" tells the story of class-prejudiced ghosts who haunt a family mansion, and "I'm A Vampire," looks at the humorous and unexpected consequences of ill-timed comparison of someone to a vampire when someone is worried about competition and the suffering his human friends are dealing with.  The rest of the stories are call connected to a set of hits in Barcelona.  "Flesh-Colored People," which deals with a Chinese-Catalan murder witness, "The Second Mrs. Appleton," which looks at a British consul and his second wife and their mutual and successful efforts to off each other, "Paradise Gained," "Mansion With Sea Views," "I Detest Mozart," "Birds Of A Feather," "Barcelona Mon Amour," and "But There Was Another Solution," all of which deal with a small and interrelated set of people, and where are a surprisingly large number of dead bodies.

Again, there are a couple of elements that make this collection of stories particularly worthwhile.  For one, the stories themselves shine, as the author shows herself very aware of the need to have distinct and entertaining personalities and plots to drive the reader's interest.  Here the author manages to summon a diverse set of characters who the reader cares about and put them in crazy plots that don't have any wasted words and that reach unexpected conclusions.  The other real star of this selection of stories is the city of Barcelona itself and its surrounding areas.  The author shows a deft touch with the political and cultural realities of Catalan life in the Barcelona area, and a skill in turning the complexity of the Catalan situation in Spain into a series of stories that demonstrate the violence and snobbery and corruption just underneath the surface in aa way that makes the mossos, the local police system, appear more than usually incompetent in understanding, much less solving, the violence that is in their midst.

[Steph Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a free ARC of this book with thanks to the author/publisher and Random Things Blog Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

This book is made up of short stories split into two sections: ‘Blood, Guts and Love’ and ‘Blood Connections’. The stories in the first section are separate and distinct from each other, but the stories in ‘Blood Connections’ contain subtle links and threads that tie them together, forming a network of individual stories that highlights the interconnectedness (and simultaneously, isolation) of modern city life.

The stories are generally told in the first-person or in a third-person intimately omniscient narrative, and the characters are often unpleasant; after all, some of them are murders! There is a common theme of self-centred self-interest in many of the tales, as the characters go about their lives occasionally intersecting others but with an intense focus on their own wants and fears.

The style of writing is direct and punchy. Short, pithy sentences have a powerful impact, especially when the content can be shocking or unexpected, but it did mean that many of the characters had quite similar narrative voices. This may relate to the book being a translation from the original Spanish?

Most of the stories here feature some form of crime and there is a twisted sense of humour and strong feel for the ironic, which lightens the sometimes macabre tone and makes even the grotesque amusing. I particularly enjoyed the titular short story as this comedic tone came through clearly in the prehistoric satire of modern gender relations. Other stories provoked different strong emotions, for instance ‘Paradise Gained’ nearly gave me an ulcer as I read, with my anxiety almost as high as Sergi’s!

My favourite aspect of these short stories was the way in which Teresa Solana plays with sudden changes of tone, pace and plot direction to subvert the reader’s expectations, with some surprising results.

These stories are a great quick read for fans of crime fiction, with dashes of humour and a distinct flavour of contemporary Barcelonan life (well, life on the dark side!).



After clearing it with Ethelred, I started my interrogations and spoke to every member of the tribe to see if anyone was without an alibi. Unfortunately, they all had one, because they swore to a man they were snoozing in the cave. As I’d spent the night at the necropolis reflecting on the question of existence, I realized I was the only one without a rock-solid alibi. But I’d swear I didn’t kill Athelstan. I’m almost absolutely sure on that front.

– Teresa Solana, ‘The First Prehistoric Serial Killer’ in The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...

[Justus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of modern noir-infused short stories, all set in the author's native Spain, was great. The only problem: this is really two separate collections and the first one was stronger than the second.

The first collection of short stories, "Blood, Guts, and Love", all take some kind of noirish trope but add in wit and turn up the gonzo to 11. The world's first serial killer among cavemen; a family of ghosts that decides to thwart a home-invasion-robbery-murder plot because they don't want to be stuck with that dreadfully boring family for all of eternity; a vampire who doesn't realize the townspeople's complaints about "bloodsucking vampires" is about a local banker and not a competitor muscling in on his turf.

I can’t complain. Today I’ve solved three murders and in one fell swoop invented prophecies, gods and oneiromancy.

The only weak story is "The Son in Law". It's perfectly fine, actually, but I've seen the same basic premise done in Out (unassuming housewife needs to dispose of a body) and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good (no one suspects the elderly lady could be a murderer) and a story like that relies a lot on the novelty.

This first collection is fantastic, five-star stuff.

The second collection of short stories, "Connections", is good but not great. These are (slightly) more run-of-the-mill crime scenarios, though still told with wit and a bit of a twist. They are all (very loosely) connected to another. But the connections are so loose I'm not sure they actually add much.

There are still a couple of gems. "I Detest Mozart" is the story of a woman who hates going to the opera so much she commits several murders to try to get out of it.

"Mansion with Sea Views" gives us a fairly sympathetic builder who discovers a corpse while remodeling a childhood friend's house; we find he has a shocking secret of his own that is mentioned almost casually, causing to question just how sympathetic we actually thought he was.

"Barcelona, Mon Amour" is about a translator whose specialises in mob-deals. When three mobs -- Catalan, Russian, and French -- need to do a large drug deal, she's called in to translate. (It doesn't go well.)

But even the best of these later stories felt like they were a notch below the first in their creativity and verve.

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Teresa Solana's collection of short stories, The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories, we are presented with darkly funny, engrossing and shocking tales of crime.

From the Neanderthalic Holmes solving the first serial killings, the family of ghosts that thwart a robbery and possible murder, the vampire who rids his village of a family of vampires he believes to be sucking the villagers dry to the unfortunate widow in Barcelona who rents her flat out to murderous Russians, Solana keeps us gripped in the palm of her hand as she crafts these ingenious crime stories.

This fantastic rendering of crimes both selfish and selfless is a must read.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Bitter Lemon Press for making the digital copy available.

[Tomer Gurantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short stories, the first half being some random short stories and the second half being a collection that is specifically (more?) Barcelona focused, where they all share some interplay. I loved the voice that each character has in each of these stories, all the little works of fiction shone in their own way, even though they aren't always satisfyingly resolved... or perhaps that's the whole point is to give you these little interconnected vignettes in exactly that way. Having read the English translation, I have a feeling it reads a bit better in Spanish, but regardless the personality of characters does feel like it comes through the dialogue. I happened to read this in Europe on the way and in Barcelona, so that was an additional piece of enjoyment, and I do recommend!

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating this at 4 stars is a bit of a stretch because all the stories are lightweight comedies, notwithstanding the frequent elements of satire set in Barcelona and area. They are all framed as amusing crime stories (there are frequent episodes of violence but those are not really believable). The sensibility careers from 1930s pulp fiction to Mad magazine. It's all fun reading, despite the jokes being rather basic and the satire running at a fairly superficial level. After reading Solana's much more seriously intended When I Sing Mountains Dance, trying this collection was a bit like expecting a good-quality ice cream or gelato and ending up with a chocolate-dipped soft-serve cone. But sometimes that's enough to keep a person happy.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weirdly uneven to me. First half is a bunch of short stories whose ironies telegraph themselves a mile away, sometimes 10 miles away. The titular caveman one is pretty good, but some of the others just rely on mockery of various vacuous 20somethings, which gets old fast, or a kind of darkness that maybe would have been edgy in, I dunno, 1935. (Seriously, read some Fredric Brown sometime. The Screaming Mimi still gives me chills.) Second half, linked stories set in Barcelona, is much sharper and tighter.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is 2 short story collections in 1 book.

The first one is a really fun, silly set of wierd murders. A caveman detective (all the alibis are "I was asleep"), a vampire whos taking care of a rival (who's just a human banker) ect. These are fantastically inventive and great fun.

The second one is a series of connected stories around crime. These aren't all about criminals, but trying to spot the links is a bit of fun in a series of decent narratives, which have their own darkly comic moments too.

[Danna]

"The First Prehistoric Serial Killer is an absurd and wonderful collection of short stories that offers a unique take on the crime fiction genre. Solana’s crime writing is known for its humour and satire of Catalan and Spanish politics and life, and wit, sarcasm and dry Catalan humour certainly shine through in each short story in this collection. Taking stereotypical themes in the genre (vampires, murder, organized crime, ghosts)"
[from: https://www.eurolitnetwork.com/la-esp...]

[Marcos Alfaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Had so many different elements ranging from comedic to horror to just being plain ridiculous in the best possible way. Definitely a good read for those with a morbid sense of humor with a splash of true crime.

It’s really amazing how the author can make each narrator of the stories its own distinct character that makes sense with the overarching tone of the book but distinct enough to feel like you’re discovering something new.

Will definitely read more from this author and was just a very fun read overall!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

entertaining stories--dark and a bit bloody but always with a winking air of whimsy. those with the more pronounced twist at the end remind me a bit of Saki, although these stories don't have quite the elegance and depth of his tales. still, enjoyable reading overall!

[Marina Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good fun - and dark and surreal and twisted!

[Jediam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! I didn’t love the first, title, story, but the rest were incredible. These short stories, many of them interconnected, explore the dark side of Barcelona, and places the crime and grit and dark fully into the upper and middle class. Amusing and creepy. And just so much fun.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of short stories translated from the Spanish. The titular story I found a little daft but otherwise this book was an unexpected gem.