Even the Darkest Night

April 25, 2022
The shadow of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables looms large over the engrossing latest from Spanish writer Cercas (Outlaws). Hugo’s classic is the favorite of ex-con Melchor Marín, who read the book while serving time for his involvement with a Colombian drug cartel and who identifies with police inspector Javert, whom he thinks of as a “false bad guy.” Now a detective in the Spanish town of Terra Alta, Melchor begins to channel some of Javert’s implacable pursuit of justice in his investigation of the murder of a printing magnate and his wife. Though the businessman had many enemies, no evidence turns up to implicate anyone for the crime, prompting his department to close the case. That rankles Melchor, in part because it reminds him of the death of his mother, a sex worker whose murder was never solved. Melchor’s dogged determination to keep investigating the case behind the backs of his superiors eventually risks danger to himself and his loved ones. While Cercas resorts to lengthy swaths of exposition to relate the characters’ back stories, the narrative is generally well paced and suspenseful, and a surprise ending firmly roots the novel in Spain’s troubled 20th-century history and brings Melchor’s Javert fixation full circle. Fans of literary detective novels ought to take a look.

June 10, 2024

Convicted of working for a Colombian cartel, Melchor Mar�n is serving jail time when his sex-worker mother is murdered. After his release, he pursues a career as a police detective, intent on solving his mother's murder. While on the job in Barcelona, he interrupts a terrorist attack and kills four of the attackers. Fear of reprisals from terrorist groups causes his temporary transfer to the small Catalan town of Terra Alta. Once there, he is confronted with a horrific triple murder, which he relentlessly pursues even after the case has been closed, which comes at a terrible cost to both the family and him. Cercas (Soldiers of Salamis; The Anatomy of a Moment), winner of the Premio Planeta, Spain's biggest literary prize, has created another award-winning story that entwines philosophy, literature, politics, revenge, and the ethics of good and evil. Narrator Lee Osorio captures the accents, personalities, and full-bodied characterizations of this complex novel, offering an absorbing and seamless performance. VERDICT An excellent choice for any literary crime fiction collection.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

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