A Darker Night

Max Romero Mystery #2

by P.J. Brooke

Paco, a gypsy, has just been released from prison where he served a sentence for murdering his wife. He heads home to his cave in the rural Sacromonte Valley outside Granada. The next day, Max Romero, half-Scottish, half-Spanish, and a sub-inspector in the Spanish National Police, is out for a hike with his sister when he is summoned by a passerby who has found a dead body. The officer in charge of the investigation has no time to waste on another dead gypsy, but Max and a brand new judge think that even an ex-convict gypsy is entitled to justice.

Genres: Spain, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

P.J. Brooke is the amalgam of a husband and wife writing team, Philip O’Brien and Jane Brooke. They live part of the year in Scotland and part of the year in the old Moorish district of Granada. Blood Wedding is the first novel in a planned series set in Granada and Latin America featuring Inspector Max Romero.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second novel in the series featuring Sub-Inspector Max Romero of the National Police in Granada. I enjoyed this more than the first as it became more plot-driven than the first which I felt revolved around his familial relationships. The family is still important, but the plot and the investigation takes center stage and I enjoyed it much more. A man recently released from prison is killed soon after he returns home and the cast of potential killers and the motive for the death take Romero into corruption involving land development and corruption that extends into his own department, endangering both his career and his life. The writers set the stage in a contemporary Granada, making my enjoyment greater as I am brought into this exotic local. Romero survives the corruption and I look forward to future stories.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The strength of this book is it's setting in Granada. I don't always buy into the actions of our Scottish/Spanish hero Max Romero but it's an entertaining mystery.