Watcher in the Pine - Hardcover

Pawel, Rebecca

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156947379X ISBN 13: 9781569473795

Publisher: Soho Crime, 2005

Synopsis

“Absolutely riveting. . . . Rebecca Pawel’s first act of surprising courage is to make her main character not one of the romantic Republicans of folk song and Hemingway story but an officer of their much-hated enemy, the dreaded Guardia Civil.”—Chicago Tribune

“[Rebecca Pawel’s] expansive knowledge of the city and the era brings alive its grim streets and harsh martial law. . . . This is a fascinating tale from a promising young writer; I’m already looking forward to her next book.”—Rocky Mountain News

“The immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War provides the bleak setting for Pawel’s stirring first novel. . . . Unsparing in her depiction of the casual brutalities spawned by war, but also offers evidence of the power of little civilities and kindnesses in a novel that easily transcends the formulaic crime story.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Pawel anchors a tense and exciting story with a terrific and complex plot.”—Detroit Free Press

Spain, 1940. A mountain village is Carlos Tejada’s first independent command. But he soon discovers that this “promotion” is a mixed blessing. There is no one to meet the train when he and his wife arrive, the officers of the small Guardia Civil post are far from welcoming. Is it just that they are suspicious of an officer with a Republican sympathizer for a wife? Tejada discovers that the officer he is replacing was shot to death and that the village is a center of smuggling and guerrilla activity. And then worse befalls: a new outbreak of the Civil War, financed from abroad, may be about to take place with his post as its epicenter.

Tejada must ultimately find a way to reconcile his duty with his love for his wife.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Pawel is twenty-eight years old and a graduate of Columbia University. She lives in New York City and teaches Spanish and English in a Brooklyn high school. She is the author of Death of a Nationalist, Law of Return, and The Watcher in the Pine. Rebecca frequently travels to Spain.

Reviews

Both time and place—1940, just after the Spanish Civil War, in a remote village in the mountains of northern Spain—are impeccably rendered in Edgar-winner Pawel's well-researched if austere novel, her third (after 2004's Law of Return) to feature Carlos Tejada, a lieutenant in the Guardia, the police force of Fascist Spain. Tejada has left his previous post in Salamanca to take command of the Guardia in the town of Potes, whose small size belies its troubles. Guerrillas killed his predecessor, and the area has been designated a "Devastated Region" in the war's aftermath. Tejada and his young wife, Elena, who's carrying their first child, are both greeted with wary suspicion, despite Elena's Republican sympathies. The Civil War may be over, but the conflict lives on, embodied by the relationship between Tejada and Elena and their relationships with the residents of Potes. The crime that propels the mystery, which is a long time in coming, involves the theft of two crates of dynamite, a local rebel's death and a ruthless and enterprising guerrilla. But for all the book's richness of detail, the lack of narrative drive and flatness of tone may disappoint fans of more conventional mystery fare.
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Edgar-winner Pawel (Death of a Nationalist, 2003) returns to post-civil war Spain. Guardia Civil Lieutenant Carlos Tejada and his pregnant wife, Elena, the daughter of leftists, are on their way to a new post in Potes, a city destroyed during the war. The Liebana region is a maquis stronghold, and the new Guardia commander does not receive a warm welcome. When his wife and newborn son are kidnapped, he uncovers a series of crimes, including the murder of his predecessor, smuggling, theft, and arms trafficking involving Guardia officers. His wife appears to be interested in a local maquis sympathizer, and his in-laws are not happy to have a son-in-law in Franco's military. Pawel surrounds her mystery plot with a vivid re-creation of the political environment in postwar Spain and a perceptive portrayal of the delicate balance that holds together a loving marriage. Mixing history, relationships, and Spanish culture, this thought-provoking and entertaining novel will appeal to a wide range of readers both inside and outside the crime fiction genre. Barbara Bibel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Crime
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 156947379X
• ISBN 13: 9781569473795
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288