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A Death In Valencia (2012)

by Jason Webster(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

031258184X (ISBN13: 9780312581848)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Chief Inspector Max Cámara

review 1: This is a book about more than a singular death, it is an exploration of the nature of death and what constitutes murder. Max Cámara, the Valencia detective introduced in Or The Bull Kills You, cannot sleep: his street is being dug up as the new Metro line is being built, the summer heat pulsates, and Valencia is crazy as it prepares for the arrival of the Pope.The city buzzes with pro- and anti-Catholic emotions, with pro-life and pro-choice campaigners lining up their arguments for the Pope. Meanwhile the police force prepares security for the visit, as a developer is ripping up the old fisherman’s quarter El Cabanyal to build new apartment blocks. On the first page, a dead body is washed up on the shore. A well-known paella chef.Max has eaten the chef’s paella but ... moreis taken off the case to help hunt for a kidnapped woman, a gynaecologist who performs abortions. The eve of the Pope’s visit is the worst possible time for this to happen. As always seems to happen in crime novels, two seemingly separate incidents are linked. The link, in this case, is carefully plotted so I didn’t spot it until the end. For me, this is a deeper more intelligent novel than the first in the Max Cámara series [there are now four], perhaps because the author is settling into the genre and the character.I must add that Valencia simply rocks in this book, it comes alive off the page, the heat, the tension, the grief. I can smell the summer dust.
review 2: Second in the Max Camara series and just as fast paced as the first. While Or The Bull Kills you dealt with bullfighting and its culture old and new. This second book features paella and anti or pro abortion clinics as the main flow coming to a head during a visit by the Pope, all threads that weave in and out again present the various government and municipal authorities playing major roles. Various police groups ...not often working together.....town hall again with its reign over the city wrecking havoc to old sections making way for new. This time Max is truly at his wits end being homeless but it does not slow him down nor does the lingering depression he has apparently suffered since book one's outcome. He is determination personified, often to his own peril. This writer makes me think of Donna Leon and her marvelous books set in Venice. A city I love. While she shows the elegance combined with the underbelly of the city she long ago embraced as home and its dysfunction and leaves me still loving it best, Jason Webster who is also an expat of long standing that has truly studied his new home and loves it, leaves me quite nervous to ever visit Valencia let alone set foot in Spain again!But I cannot wait for another in this series...... less

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