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When a loathsome priest is murdered in the region of Aragon, Spain, in a town in the Pyrenees mountains, the king sends Licenciado Bernardo Mendoza, one of four criminal judges, to investigate. While many had reason to kill the priest, there are larger forces at work, and Mendoza is also tasked with searching for the "Redeemer," who is said to be inciting the Moorish population to revolt.
Called "New Christians" after converting, many of these Moriscos still practice their religion in secret in the year 1584. The king feels that the Moors in the town of Cardona are "intransigent and defiant." While this might normally be a job for the Spanish Inquisition—which in fact has an inquisitor in the region—the king also wants Mendoza to suppress any rebellion, as his daughter is set to marry in Aragon the coming year.
In Aragon, Mendoza not only finds Inquisitor Mercader, who relishes torture as a means of extracting information and refuses to work with Mendoza, but he is also met with unreliable or reluctant witnesses, savage road bandits, and a town that has turned against the Moors with unrestrained violence. Together with his young page, a cousin and special constables, Mendoza tackles the mystery of the Redeemer, soon coming to believe that something more than religion is at stake.
While there's a mystery at the heart of THE DEVILS OF CARDONA, the novel's strength lies in the historical details, as well as the lessons delivered about religious, racial and sexual intolerance. The author examines a time and place torn by these conflicts that divided a town and its people. There's definitely a message for our own times in this book, but it is delivered with a light touch and strong, engaging characters.
§ Lourdes Venard is an independent editor who divides her time between New York and Maui.
Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, June 2016
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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