A wonderfully dark psychological thriller full of intrigue and menace from the author of Blind Man of Seville. If you like Rankin's Rebus you'll love Wilson's Javier Falcon.
Mario Vega is seven years old and his life is about to change forever. Across the street in an exclusive suburb of Seville his father lies dead on the kitchen floor and his mother has been suffocated under her own pillow. It appears to be a suicide pact, but Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón has his doubts when he finds an enigmatic note crushed in the dead man's hand.
In the brutal summer heat Falcón starts to dismantle the obscure life of Rafael Vega only to receive threats from the Russian mafia who have begun operating in the city. His investigation into Vega's neighbours uncovers a creative American couple with a destructive past and the misery of a famous actor whose only son is in prison for an appalling crime.
Within days two further suicides follow – one of them a senior policeman – and a forest fire rages through the hills above Seville obliterating all in its path. Falcón must now sweat out the truth, which will reveal that everything is connected and there is one more secret in the black heart of Vega's life.
Robert Wilson has lived and worked around the world, including spells shipbroking, tourguiding, and exporting bathrooms to Nigeria. After escaping car crashes, civil wars and angry baboons, he and his wife settled in Portugal, and Rob turned to novels. Since then, he's written ten acclaimed crime novels including the CWA Gold Dagger award winning A SMALL DEATH IN LISBON.
