Pawel, Rebecca - DEATH OF A NATIONALIST

[LJ Roberts]

DEATH OF A NATIONALIST (Historical Novel/Mystery) – EX Rebecca Pawel – 1st book

Set in Madrid, 1939, and the bitter civil war between the Nationalists, supported by the facists, and the Republicans, supported by the communists, with atrocities committed by both sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon, a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil, finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo, shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman caught kneeling over the body is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused, Tejada decides to investigate further.

This is a remarkable, and painful, book. It raised my anger at mankind throughout centuries whose actions have resulted in war and atrocities However, it is a very well written story with duo views of Tejada the Nationalist and Gonzalo Llorente the Republican; as well as within Tejada himself when he realizes the woman he killed had been innocent. The descriptions are brutal but the book is excellent and well deserved having received an Edgar.