Death of a Nationalist is the award-winning 2003 debut novel of Rebecca Pawel and first in the 4-book Sergeant Carlos Tejada Investigation series. I enjoyed this one. The characters were well-drawn and the plot was intriguing. The setting -immediate post-Spanish civil war fascist Madrid- is not interesting enough to me for me to seek out the rest of the series, but I'm glad I read this one.
from the back of the book:
Madrid in the wake of the Spanish Civil War is a city of bomb craters, desecrated churches, black markets, and violent tensions between fascist-supported Nationalists and Communist-supported Republicans. In the middle of this tumult, Sergeant Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon of the Guardia Civil, a young and dedicated recruit, must investigate the murder of his best friend, Francico "Paco" Lopez Perez. Paco was a Nationalist hero of the siege of Toledo, and naturally, a Red is suspected. But in violently unstable postwar Madrid, little is what it seems.Kirkus Reviews calls it "An intriguing juxtaposition of the political and the personal." Publishers Weekly closes with this: "Forecast: As genre entertainment this will be a hard sell, but it should get some serious literary attention for its 25-year-old author". Reviewing the Evidence has a positive review.
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I'm not drawn to most movies or books about war. Some historical ones can be interesting if it has good characters and storyline plots besides just the war. I especially don't want to watch anything about the current fracas in the middle east. Just drags on my soul. We never learn. Not that there haven't been great movies about war. I've seen many of them. Just a lot less likely to spend many hours reading about it, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I tend to stay away from war subjects. So many other movies to watch and books to read.
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