ELSO BARI runs a restaurant in Chicago, but does some private eye work on the side—he’s a whiz at tracking down those who don’t want to be found.
He likes good food and good wine, and he dresses well. He even speaks softly and asks questions politely. But don’t mistake him for some cuff-linked cream puff—he knows his way around the mean streets, and he can take care of himself. Still, he’s definitely more interested in food and wine than in detective work.
Which he amply proves in the 2010 standalone Barcelona Skyline, when one of his employees dies under what can only be described as mysterious circumstances, and Elso—who owes some big shots some big favours—is forced to investigate. To his dismay, Elso soon discovers his chef seemed to have had ties to international art theft ring, and so he’s off to Spain, where he finds himself tangling with the Spanish mob, a kinky female assassin who uses sex as a weapon, and a lot of wondering what on Earth’s going on—in between some lovingly described meals, of course.
“In Spain,” the author explains, “food is a serious matter. Meals are often lengthy affairs. In restaurants, deals are made, people talk at the table over the wine or the cognac with the coffee after the meal—about politics, business, love, philosophy, life—so it seems natural to me to have a good deal of eating in this novel…. Spanish readers will recognize here a tribute to the great Barcelona crime writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who would always include at least one recipe in each of his novels.”
It’s that sort of book.
Cheers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poet and novelist David C. Hall grew up in the Midwest and bumped around the United States working odd jobs (the Forest Service in Oregon, flipping pancakes in Seattle) until he landed in Barcelona in 1974, where he taught English, worked as a translator and became active in local politics. His first crime novel, Cuatro días (Four Days) was written in English, and published in Spanish in 1984, and it seems to have set the pattern: Wilson writes ‘em in English, and then they’re translated and published in Spanish. Billete de vuelta (1990), featuring private eye Wilson, appeared in the United States in 1992 as Return Trip Ticket.
UNDER OATH
- “Pure US hardboiled with a garnish of Mediterrean noir.”
STRAIGHT FROM THE AUTHOR’S MOUTH
- “… in Spain, food is a serious matter. Meals are often lengthy affairs. In restaurants, deals are made, people talk at the table over the wine or the cognac with the coffee after the meal—about politics, business, love, philosophy, life—so it seems natural to me to have a good deal of eating in this novel…. Spanish readers will recognize here a tribute to the great Barcelona crime writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who would always include at least one recipe in each of his novels.”
— David C. Hall
NOVELS
- Barcelona Skyline (2010) | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
