The Pianist’s Hands by Eugenio Fuentes

This is a crime novel with a difference – where the crime itself, or rather the investigation, doesn’t play much of a part. Instead it’s all about getting under the skin of the main characters, finding out all their foibles and weak points, until the murderer’s identity can be divined.

It starts out telling us about the unnamed pianist who, frustrated by his position in a band that plays the same old tunes at weddings, develops a sideline in euthanasing animals. Word of mouth and cash will get you his shady services. Then one day he’s offered a larger amount to get rid of a human, he surprises himself by accepting the contract, but finds he can’t go through with it. Unfortunately for him someone else does, so the pianist is forced to use his down-payment to hire a detective to find the real murderer so that his name never crops up!

The man who was murdered was a third partner in a successful construction firm which had big plans, but lots of conflict between the three partners – the obvious suspects. Add a client whom the firm was suing on defaulting on his house purchase, the foreman with a chip on his shoulder, and the murdered man’s ex-lover, and we have a mystery for Investigator Cupido to solve.

Cupido himself has much on his mind, as his mother has decided to put herself into a home, but manages to pull himself together to ask lots of the right questions at the right time to get close to the suspects in their complex dance, and finally with the help of the Police Inspector they get their killer.

Cupido understood that none of them would say a lot more. He hadn’t obtained much objective information about Martin Ordiales; but he had gleaned a good deal about their personalities, and that was as important for him as checking their alibis.

A very enjoyable psychological crime novel. I hope more will get translated and come our way.

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Source: Own copy. To explore on Amazon UK, please click below:
Pianist’s Hands, The by Eugenio Fuentes, Eurocrime paperback.

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