What makes for a gripping, modern crime novel? Probably a hard bitten detective with a dysfunctional personality and an over fondness for the bottle. A messy murder with no apparent motive or perpetrator. A tortuous inquiry with dead ends, red herrings and frustration. Maybe an occasional glimpse into the detective’s definitely less than wonderful private life. Suddenly the main suspect emerges and the net closes. Success. Then it’s all over till the next one hits the desk.
The David Hidalgo series aims to be something entirely different. For a start, David is not a detective or any sort of crime professional. He is an anglo-Spanish evangelical pastor returned to his childhood home of Edinburgh after a lifetime working in rehab in Spain, pushed out by personal tragedy. It’s not his job to investigate anything and what he overwhelmingly wants is simply a quiet life and time and space to rebuild.
As a pastor, however, he does find other people’s problems often brought to his attention. Like when the granddaughter of a church member gets caught up in drug culture then is apparently abducted who knows where (Benefit of the Doubt: May 2017).
Or the time a routine check of accounts for a new church reveals millions that shouldn’t be there. The faked suicide of a friend who got too close leads us into what turns out to be a people trafficking forced prostitution operation hiding behind the facade of the popular new startup congregation. (All that Glitters: June 2018)
Sins of the Fathers (launching 18th Oct) sees David once again simply trying to get on with normal life with a wedding and honeymoon to plan (along with the lovely Dr. Gillian Lockhart). Then one of the Spanish young people at his Saturday morning English chat group stops him in his tracks. A copy of a Spanish newspaper carries the story of a series of apparently unrelated murders – a retired bishop, a respected church lawyer and two young people. Andrea sees the connection. They were all involved in the prosecution of paedophile priest.
Ramon is now out of prison and apparently bent on revenge. Andrea gave evidence at the trial. Could she could be next? Can David help protect her and stop Ramon before he takes another life? And of course there are deeper questions for a man with a spiritual outlook about the nature of evil and the corruption of good intentions.
So David Hidalgo, surrounded by a cast of characters from church and the community must yet again try to bring good out of evil and confront not only a violent man but also his inner doubts and questions about faith and life. Is there a guiding beneficence overseeing our universe or is life simply random, pointless and cruel? Is faith a source of strength or simply a cover for all sorts of corruption and lies? Is a Ribera del Duero the right red wine for lamb Provençal?
Maybe we’ll never know but David can’t help trying to make sense of our muddled universe and trying to do the right thing in the face of whatever life throws at him. Thank goodness for romance and Rioja.
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS is published by Lion Hudson on 18th Oct.
