Tattoo (A Pepe Carvalho Mystery) - Softcover

Vazquez Montalban, Manuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612192084 ISBN 13: 9781612192086

Publisher: Melville International Crime, 2013

Synopsis

Only Pepe Carvalho could use a tattoo saying "Born to Raise Hell in Hell" as evidence that the police are, once again, dead wrong

In a Spain still stifled under the rule of Franco, former CIA operative--and former Communist--Pepe Carvalho has become so cynical he seems to care about nothing except food and sex. He's even taken to burning the occasional book in his Barcelona apartment, just so he can have a fire going in the fireplace when he eats some bacalhao.

But when he sees the cops bungling a case he's hired to investigate--that of a body pulled out of the sea--he's roused by a sense of injustice. The cops think the murder was connected to local drug dealers and brothels, and they begin raiding bars and harassing Barcelona's women of the night. But Carvalho's gut tells him something else is going on, and the cops are wrong once again.

As the cops stir up more and more trouble, and Carvalho gets more and more entwined, he's only got one clue: a tattoo on the dead man's body, one which reads: "Born to Raise Hell in Hell."

About this title

About the Author:

Born in Barcelona in 1939, poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist MANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN was one of Spain's greatest writers. A well-known gourmand, he also wrote often about food. He is best known for his crime series featuring Pepe Carvalho, which won him international acclaim and numerous awards, including the Planeta Prize and the International Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He died in 2003 in Hong Kong, on his way home from a book tour for what would be his last Pepe Carvalho mystery.

NICK CAISTOR's translations from the Spanish and the Portuguese include works by José Saramago and Paulo Coelho, and he is the author of Che Guevara: A Life.

Review:

Pepe Carvalho is a phlegmatic investigator. His greatest concern is with his stomach, but when not pursuing delicacies, he can unravel the most tangled of mysteries. * Sunday Times * Montalban is a writer who is caustic about the powerful and tender towards the oppressed. * TLS * Montalban does for Barcelona what Chandler did for Los Angeles - he exposes the criminal power relationships beneath the facade of democracy. * Guardian * Montalban writes with authority and compassion - a Le Carre-like sorrow. * Publishers Weekly * Tattoo is a breathlessly complusive page-turner. -- Alex Donohue * The Big Issue Wales * Sex, death and food in Barcelona? It has to be a winner. -- N/A * Spain magazine * [W]ell worth reading. -- Susanna Yager * Sunday Telegraph * [A] welcome first appearence in Englsih... Distinctive and abrasive, Tattoo is a good introduction to Montalban if you haven't tried him before. -- Andrew Taylor * Spectator * [B]etter than most crime writers' best. -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * This is a well-trailed, nicely plotted murder mystery - with plenty of misdirected leads. -- Gerald Kaufman * The Scotsman * Those who prefer getting inside characters' heads to figuring out whodunit will enjoy this mystery in Montalban's series featuring food-loving PI Pepe Carvalho * PW *

About this edition

• Publisher: Melville International Crime
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1612192084
• ISBN 13: 9781612192086
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288