Bruno Blog

In a Barcelona where property’s speculators can do anything and the institutions seem to be more interested in hiding some of the most recent incidents, a crime that seems to be absurd – the death of an old man – will become a headache for inspector Oscar Vidal, from the Homicide section. Above all, when some ghosts of the past begin to appear during the investigation, as an unexpected wife, forty years younger than the victim, or when the principal suspect disappears. Oscar Vidal, who is not living his best moment, will have to face his own prejudices, and discover something about himself, in order to solve the case. Because it seems logical to think that in a city where each year there are more tourists and immigrants, some neighbourhoods life in mistrust and tension with them.

Vicky lives in the spa that her father manages. The summer she turns 15, she has to move heaven and earth to help her brother, who is accused of murder. But the gases from the nuclear centre become unbearable and two boys are following her and… after all, summers are meant to be unforgettable.

Lònia Guiu is a private detective. She is a stubborn feminist, independent, rebellious and full of contradictions. Her anxiety and dreads drive her to become a detective, who makes mistakes, and this often makes her really angry. After her cases in “Study in Lilac” and “Antipodes”, this time Lònia must face a sad and repugnant case that will take her from Barcelona to Cologne, in the North of Germany, and from there to her natal Majorca, where she will re-live both good and bad memories of her childhood. The story is set in 1958. Joanna, forty eight, is trying on her wedding dress. We will later be told this is not her first wedding, and that her fiancée is much younger than herself. We will also learn that this wedding is an act of revenge. This revenge also implies a scandal that all the guests know about, but that no one dares to voice. In this succession of intriguing chapters, that are skillfully crafted, Maria-Antònia Oliver builds the book´s structure aroung the life of a Majorcan woman, in which tension escalates up to the surprising ending.

Lonia Guiu, the wisecracking, hardboiled Catalan private eye of “Study in Lilac”, returns in this story of islands, large and small. One island is Australia, in the Antipodes, where Lonia is Working for friends on sailboat and investigating the disappearance of blonde, drugged-out heiress. The other island is Majorca, Lonia’s –and the heiress’s- Mediterranean home. A fast-paced thriller that careens from matrimonial agencies to tourist hotels and keeps Lonia, her mysterious Australian lover and her steadfast employee Quim on the razor edge of excitement.

Press Reviews: “A delightfully different detective” – Toronto Globe and Mail

“Reminiscent of Sara Paretsky‘s V.I. Warshawski, though more political and earthier.” – The Drood Review of Mystery