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This story starts with a child dropping her precious school exercise book and two murders. Pawel’s skilful use of little everyday details and tragic coincidences was one of the things which really worked for me about this historical novel, written by a 25 year old Brooklyn school teacher. In Madrid in 1939, the Spanish Civil War has ended with a victory for General Franco and his Nationalist Army. The families of those who fought on the losing side face poverty and starvation, as the defeated Republic’s currency has no value to buy food or anything else. Those with Republican sympathies had better hide them if they want to hold on to jobs or their lives. I was a bit worried when I read the back cover of this book at being asked to feel sympathy for Tejada, who is a Nationalist investigating the death of another soldier in the Guardia Civil, but the excellent storytelling had several interwoven strands, as we see two different people investigating death and seeking vengeance, and are introduced to a cast of characters on both sides of the conflict. When Tejada and his army colleagues find Aleja’s aunt Viviana holding the exercise book near the dead body of a soldier, they assume she has killed him and shoot her too. But while others think no more about killing a “Red”, the book puzzles Tejada and something nags at him – it doesn’t quite add up. When he finds out more he realises she wasn’t the killer and looks for the person who really did it. Meanwhile, the dead woman’s lover, living a hidden life with her sister’s family as he fought on the side of the Republic, is out to avenge her death. The contradictions in the characters are not skimped on – Tejada continues to do some very unlikeable things. These characters and their situation are not going to change radically during the novel any more than the history of Spain did. But the mystery and suspense in the storytelling is compelling – viewpoints shift between the different characters – and while I can not judge completely the historical accuracy, I like the way that Pawel captured and took me completely into the emotional responses of her characters to events. This novel succeeds as a historical mystery that relies more on characterisation and trying to imagine what people might have felt than on period detail.
Reviewed by Luci Davin, January 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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