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Spanish Mysteries
Rebecca C. Pawel's latest detective story, set in Franco's Spain.
by Jon L. Breen
6/12/2004 12:02:00 AM, Volume 009, Issue 39
Law of Return
by Rebecca C. Pawel
Soho, 274 pp., $24
WITH THE GROWING POPULARITY of mystery fiction set in the past, every historical period may eventually have its own sleuthing series. Post-Civil War Spain has been staked out by one of the most capable new crime writers to emerge in recent years: a young New York City high-school teacher. On April 29, Rebecca C. Pawel's Death of a Nationalist won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first novel of 2003, and her second, Law of Return, has already confirmed that debut's high promise.
As Pawel's award-winning work opens, the Civil War that ravaged Spain in 1936 is effectively over, and Generalíssimo Francisco Franco has assumed a control he won't relinquish until his death in 1975. But times continue to be hard. Food shortages leave much of the populace hungry, parts of the cities are in ruins, and raw political wounds continue to fester. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Léon is an officer of the Guardia Civil, charged with validating Franco's dubious claim that Spain is now at peace. Though such matters are always more complicated than they look, it's clear Tejada and his colleagues are on the winning side for the moment--but on the wrong side of history. Tejada is a Falangist, a Fascist, and thus seemingly an obvious villain. But he is not a Gestapo officer or death-camp custodian. He functions credibly as an essentially decent man who thinks he is doing the right thing, however it may ...
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