The Watcher in the Pine (Sergeant Tejada Investigations) - Softcover

Pawel, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569474095 ISBN 13: 9781569474099

Publisher: Soho Crime, 2006

Synopsis

The third Carlos Tejada investigation

Spain, 1940: Potes, a remote northern mountain village, is Carlos Tejada’s first independent Guardia Civil command. He soon discovers that this “promotion” is a mixed blessing. The villagers are unwelcoming. He and his pregnant wife, Elena, have no place to live but the jail, and his own men seem strangely hostile. Is it just their suspicion of his wife’s Republican sympathies? Or is there more going on in the beautiful but bleak area, recently devastated by the civil war? Tejada discovers that there may, indeed, be a new outbreak of that war with Potes as its epicenter. And he must find a way to reconcile his love for his wife with his duty.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Pawel lives in New York City and is pursuing a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her widely praised first novel, Death of a Nationalist, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, as well as a best book of the year in the Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly and Detroit Free Press.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Crime
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1569474095
• ISBN 13: 9781569474099
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 330