A classic thriller, set in modern Seville, "Hidden Assassins" has all the elements of a 1960s spy novel -- only now the KGB have been replaced by Islamic extremists.
The story begins with the gruesome discovery of a body in Seville's municipal dump. Only this corpse is different. His hands have been severed; his face erased with acid; but his body has been carefully, even respectfully, sown into a shroud.
Jefe Inspector Falcon
The chief inspector of Seville's homicide squad is the classic anti-hero. Honest, yet cynical, intelligent, but not quite part of the city's elite, Javier Falcon has a good share of personal baggage. His ex-wife is now the wife of the city's chief judge, having been seduced away from Falcon, and he can't help obsessing about a woman which whom he had a four-month affair several years ago.
An Explosion
Before the city's homicide squad can identify the mutilated body or find his murderers, the city of Seville is rocked by an early morning explosion which brings down an apartment building full of people and partially destroys a preschool, killing four children. As has become the western way of life in the 21st century, Seville's Arabic community -- mostly Moroccans -- are suspected by the city's Spanish majority. Tensions rise and many Islamic citizens fear for their safety. That the apartment building housed a mosque in the lower level only adds to the drama. Does this mean that the people's suspicions are valid?
Plot Twists
Hidden Assassins takes the reader up blind alleys and to unlikely (but sometimes valid) conclusions as we race along with Falcon and his squad to find the terrorists before they can strike again. Was the explosion intended for the apartment building? Is the body they found in the dump related to the bomb? If so, how is it related? Will Falcon's personal issues get in the way of his investigation?
Hidden Assassins is a gripping read, in the tradition of John LeCarre and Robert Ludlum. It's a fast-paced story with a satisfying, and difficult to foresee, ending. It's a book that's definitely worth picking up.
Robert Wilson is the author of eight thrillers, including a Small Death in Lisbon. He is a past winner of the "Best Novel of the Year" award from the British Crime Writers' Association. He divides his time between Portugal and Oxford, England.
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