January 30, 2012
Montalbán's third procedural featuring ex-CIA operative Carvalho (after 2009's Tattoo) set in mid-1970s Spain, is another solid effort that's stronger as a portrayal of eccentric characters than as a whodunit puzzle. While the Spaniard was still with the Company, posing as a travelling salesman, he meets a fellow countryman, Antonio Jauma, on a flight to San Francisco. The two share a meal, and a short trip, but their lives don't intersect again until years later; Carvalho, who is now working as a private eye, learns that Jauma has been shot to death near Vich. The official line is that Jauma's womanizing led to his murder. His widow hires the investigator to solve the crime, although the dead man's employer, multinational corporation Petnay, is trying to suppress any scandal and hush things up. Montalbán's lead's cynical worldview and the author's winks at the reader are often amusing.