The gypsy bride, by Carmen Mola

Nothing better for an interesting crime novel than to start from the mystery about its authorship. Waiting to know more details about the writer or writer behind the pseudonym Carmen Mola. And with the doubts about the intention or the possible commercial drifts of this buried authorship, it is fair to recognize that the novel is good, very good. A work that stands at the height of the Dolores Redondo from the Baztán valley as far as the evil of the case is concerned, only with that fresh touch of a singular scenography.

Because what Carmen Mola presents us is a crime novel with an ethnic setting, so to speak. Because the victim who soon burst into the plot is a girl with gypsy roots. Poor Susana Macaya is murdered at dawn on her bachelorette party. The disturbing initial disappearance ends up awakening to a stark reality that at times looms on the scenes of our own world in which evil appears with those unpredictable lashes of cruelty.

It is then when the novel acquires that black point that connects with the police, with the police professionals who immerse themselves in the true sewers of society, where the most macabre instincts are fed at the service of the most disturbed reason.

The case points, without a doubt, to what already happened in the case of Susana's sister. Just a few years ago, Susana said goodbye to her sister Lara, under the same circumstances as hers, as a sinister juncture of fate. And about that, of the fatal fate of the Macaya sisters, Inspector Blanco must know, a policewoman with her own injuries who first faces a murderer who repeats the formula of her imprisoned predecessor.

Unless whoever remains in jail for the first death is not really the one who caused it. And in this case, Inspector Blanco must consider that the vengeful being, in addition to being cruel, is intelligent enough to blame others for his macabre deeds.

And that's where that ethnic thriller aspect comes in, where the cursory knowledge of gypsy culture serves the cause of the narrative to pose possible scenarios of revenge, hatred and rejection. Because the Macaya family wanted to unburden their Roma roots. And such a decision could end up leading to doom.

Inspector Blanco will find new clues in her investigation, but also profound threats from the most unexpected places.

You can now buy the novel La novia gitana, by the enigmatic author Carmen Mola, here: