History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 6/10 · Translated from Spanish

• Plot: The lights go out during a meeting of the Spanish Communist Party, and the general secretary is found stabbed.
• Clues: Political rather than forensic; the question is which faction benefited.
• Reveal: Plausible but less important than the satire.

During a meeting of the Central Committee of the Spanish Communist Party in Madrid, the lights go out. When they come back, Fernando Garrido, the general secretary, is dead. The party, distrustful of the police, hires Pepe Carvalho, who was once a member himself.

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán uses the case to explore the Spanish left after the transition to democracy. The Communists are divided, ageing and uncertain of their role. Carvalho’s investigation takes him into party factions, old grievances and the lingering influence of Francoist security services.

The book’s pleasure lies in Carvalho’s irony and in the author’s knowledge of politics. Madrid, unfamiliar to the Barcelona-based detective, is portrayed with humour.

The weakness is that the mystery is thin, and readers unfamiliar with Spanish politics may find the book obscure. The political discussions are long, and the food scenes are fewer than in other Carvalho novels.

The 6 reflects an interesting political novel that is less successful as crime fiction than Southern Seas. It remains an important document of its moment.