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.

Review

Praise for The Watcher in the Pine

“The hostilities are never over in the mournful mysteries that Rebecca Pawel sets in the devastated cities of Spain in the aftermath of the civil war . . . Pawel frames the complex ethical issues she raises in the divided loyalties of her series hero . . . and his wife, Elena, whose sympathies are entirely with the Republican cause. Until the family wounds are healed, Pawel argues, the war will never end.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Part history lesson, part whodunit, this story is rich in landscape and political detail.”
—Mystery Scene

“The Edgar-winning author tells her story in spare prose, befitting the bleakness of the political and physical landscape . . . The richness of historical detail and the loving but uneasy relationship between Tejada and Elena offer their own rewards to the reader.”
—The Denver Post

“Pawel—winner of an Edgar for the series debut, Death of a Nationalist—has managed to capture the Spanish Civil War period in thrilling detail . . . Her writing is thoughtful for thoughtful readers. Her understanding of the times of which she writes, the fractured loyalties and seething vengeances, is eclipsed only be her insights into the human heart.”
—The Plain Dealer

“A fabulous historical whodunit.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Equal parts history lesson and crime novel, displaying both offhand cruelty and welcome depth.”
—Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

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