Translated from Catalan by Peter Bush
I’m delighted to be today’s stop on the blog tour for another new to me crime author, now published by Corylus books in translation. It’s the third crime novel by Teresa Solana, and the first to feature her detective Norma Forester. Now I know you’re thinking that doesn’t sound a very Spanish, let alone Catalan, name – and the fact that she had an English grandfather who was a member of the International Brigade, and that her family has a predilection for naming offspring after opera characters are initially the least exciting facts about her lineage! Norma is married to Octavi, a forensic doctor; her former husband and birth father of her student daughter Violeta is Guillem and he is gay. Then there’s her hippy mother Mimi, great-grandmother Senta and Aunt Margarida.
The moment you find out about Aunt Margarida, you just have to love her – she became a nun late in life, sensing that a quiet life where she would be taken care of was desirable, over any religious conviction. She, and the proceeds of her house sale, were welcomed with open arms into the closed order. But just occasionally, Margarida has to escape, a couple of days out annually to see the family, play bingo and wear nail varnish. Margarida has other skills too which will come in useful – in her nun’s cell at night – she’s a computer whizz on her laptop and adept at getting into places she shouldn’t on the web!
The novel begins though with a murder. We follow ‘the man who was about to commit murder’ as he goes about his task, which involves some detours to avoid capture, changing clothes, etc before his evening appointment with his target, a history professor at the university. It’s all done quickly, and he makes his escape taking a packet from his desk too, but bumps into two female students on his way out, cross when he wouldn’t give them a light. Why this professor though? He’d only returned to work after cancer three weeks ago and was due to retire soon in any case.
Meanwhile Norma is feeling tense. It’s All Saints Eve, and it’s her 38th birthday. She wants all her family gathered around her for a rare dinner together; she’s gone to great lengths to persuade her colleagues not to call her. In particular, she wants Violeta there, she is currently rebelling and living in a squat, so Norma is naturally worried that she might be associating with the wrong types there. It’s OK, she does turn up. However, the big family dinner is not to be – when the Professor’s body is discovered, and they realise who his in-laws are – the Barcelona police have to be seen to be putting their best officers on the case. Not only Norma, but also Octavi are called in.
The Professor’s daughter-in-law is a part owner of a Big Pharma company and Monica and her brother Paul Muntaner are very keen to keep things neat. It’s not until Norma spots a possible link to another unsolved suspicious death that the investigation can be opened up and driven on different terms, it seems that old secrets from the Spanish Civil War, of which the Professor was an expert and had written a yet to be published book may be surfacing. Apparently the title of this novel links directly to the opening line of a favourite song of the Spanish anarchists. I’m ashamed to say I know so little about the Spanish Civil War, so this passed me by until it took over the proceedings.
However, the crime(s) aren’t the main feature of this novel, the characters are. Solana has drawn some superb characters in Norma’s family: some loveable especially Aunt Margarida, some surprising like the classic fussy grandmother Mimi who embraces Margarida’s techie hobbies, some easy-going like Octavi, some highly strung like Norma and Violeta – who have a classic mother vs. daughter vibe. The latter is to the forefront when Violeta is arrested during a protest, and naturally Norma would do anything to avoid Violeta getting a record, while not bothering so much about Violeta’s compadres. Hmm! The rest of the Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan Police) are classic characters too. As for the Muntaner family…
I gather that this is the first of a trilogy to feature Norma Forester, and I hope that Corylus will be able to bring the other two to us in due course, for it was rather good. I must say the Iberian setting made a change from all the Nordic fare I’ve been reading too.
Source: Review copy – thank you! Corylus Books flapped paperback original, 233 pages.
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I really enjoyed this one too – I hope they translate the rest of the trilogy.