The novels of Carla montero they transport us to scenes of that practically tangible past, places where memories of our elders still inhabit or sepia photographs in which simple gestures seem to outline great stories.
And that is precisely why Carla achieves that wonderful fit between the mystery, the historical fiction and a hint of strange melancholy for a world extinct not so long ago.
The point is that between Carla and other great authors with a predilection for that yesterday that still awakens echoes such as Maria Dueñas o Gabas Light, they fully realize an extensive imaginary cultivated by them between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.
In Carla's particular case, her stories trace intense lives but also pose enigmas, mysteries, crimes ..., events that disrupt that world to be revisited from the privileged focus of this author who at times shares magisterial formulas such as those of Ken follet in his trilogy The Century. Intra-stories from family sagas to accompany, with the brilliance of detail, the evolution of History.
Top 3 recommended books by Carla Montero
The fire medallion
Writing in two stages is a kind of time tunnel that literature is capable of transforming into parallel worlds of identical passage. Thus, different eras bring together lives with that magical feeling that everything is present. And nothing better than something material, capable of outliving us, that ends up coming to life by the mere fact of sharing touches on either side of time.
Madrid, today. Ana García-Brest, an art expert, receives a call from Martin, the young and mysterious treasure hunter whom she briefly met during the search for The Astrologer in The Emerald Table. An Italian tycoon has been assassinated and a powerful treasure is in danger: the Medallion of Hiram, a magical relic that belonged to the architect of the Temple of Solomon. No one knows the exact whereabouts of the piece and Martin needs Ana's help to find it. Both will undertake a frenetic search throughout Europe facing infinite dangers, because very soon they will discover that they are not the only ones who want to get the relic.
Berlin, 1945. In the throes of World War II, the fates of four people are about to cross with unforeseen consequences for Hiram's Medallion: a bloodthirsty Nazi who tracks down a ruined Berlin with an obsession to seize the medallion; a young Spanish student of architecture, who is involved in an unsuspected intrigue; a German engineer who is in the crosshairs of the Russian intelligence service, and a Soviet army sniper who keeps an important secret.
The emerald table
If there is an enigmatic painter in the history of art, it is Giorgione. Its short existence leads us into the deepest shadows of uncertainty. While the quality of his recognized work arouses inexhaustible and recurring curiosity.
In the hands of Carla Montero the enigma of this character takes on new life. Because Ana, an art specialist, comes across clues about one of those paintings that are periodically attributed to this author, in this case the supposed canvas imagined by the author «The Astrologer». And of course, she is impelled to investigate with the support of her partner Konrad. Meanwhile, we know of an episode of Nazi looting capitalized by an SS policeman named Von Bergheim. He will be in charge of looking for the same painting that Ana will look for years later.
Because Hitler himself considers that this work hides some great secret. But the future of Von Bergheim will confront him with the discovery of love in a Jewess, Sarah Bauer. In the parallelism of both stories that trace investigations to find the painting, we will pass with passionate reading towards discoveries much greater than those of the secret associated with the canvas.
Winter on your face
Lena and Guillén. Raised together as brothers and separated by the tragic circumstances of the turbulent days prior to the Spanish civil war, which was precisely in charge of confronting brothers with unusual harshness.
The memory of those childhood days remains indelible during the boys' growth, and increases when both are already those young survivors of the atrocity of the conflict to whom magic grants the possibility of a reunion. Afterwards the war lasted too long for the two hearts beating so far away. Because Guillén went to France and Lena stayed in Spain. In the frenzy of those days, both were forced to take sides. And when their lives could once again trace a shared destiny, precisely their antagonistic role seemed determined to distance them.
With that gripping contrast between love and the destruction of wars, both characters' days move from conflict to conflict, from Civil War to World War II. And it seems that they will never have a second chance. Paradigmatic characters, allegory brimming with passion and tragedy. One of those intrahistories that address the essentially human in the midst of something as atrocious as war.
Other interesting books by Carla Montero ...
Golden skin
A crime novel paradoxically brimming with light. A historical fiction in the middle of the exuberant city of Vienna, capital of an Austro-Hungarian empire with horizons of a convulsed Republic, and one of the largest cities in all of Europe after all. Vienna with its imposing monumental presence already at the beginning of the XNUMXth century and the inevitable tinsel of classism.
But between the ballroom dancing, chamber music and the big business of the capital, life ends up being fragile. Because young women are being murdered. These are models from whose image paintings are painted and photographs immortalized, when passions and improvised love affairs are not worshiped... At the head of the model girl business, an Inés who has known how to earn her space.
But when the girls are being murdered, Inés appears as the culprit. The person in charge of investigating what is happening is Inspector Karl Sehlackman. The biggest problem you will face is that the origin of everything points to two potential criminals with whom you are emotionally involved to the depths of your being or socially by the relevance of the other possible executor.
