Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado

 

I love good fiction in translation, particularly mystery/thrillers. The latest is from Spanish author, Juan Gomez-Jurado and his Antonia Scott trilogy begins with the exciting Red Queen. Antonia is an extremely astute observer who can take in every detail of a crime scene, analyze a thousand possibilities in her head and spot details and extrapolate motives that other people miss. She's brilliant. She is also damaged. Maybe insane. Definitely quirky.  Antonia works for a secret law enforcement agency that solves the country's thorniest crimes. She's walked away from that and isolated herself after her husband winds up in a coma for which she blames herself.

When the son of one of Spain's most powerful men turns up dead, drained of blood, Antonia's superiors turn to a disgraced police officer, Jon Gutierrez, to partner with her and convince her to come out of her self-imposed exile. Jon thinks of himself as a good cop, but he has been caught red-handed framing a criminal. He's about to lose his job, his pension, and his freedom. The Red Queen project can make all of that go away IF Jon convinces Antonia to work on the case.

Jon has nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying. Once he convinces Antonia to visit the crime scene, her powerful brain and curiosity kick in. Soon the daughter of a very rich man is kidnapped and a deadly game of cat and mouse begins in earnest. The killer is clever and meticulous with a motive that is difficult to discern. 

Antonia and Jon make an unlikely but very effective pairing. Juan Gomez-Jurado combines great characters with outstanding action filled with explosions, thrilling chase scenes, and intense confrontations. The pace is relentless and filled with interesting locales. 

All three books in the trilogy are already published in Spanish and I can't wait until the next two books are translated into English. The series is slated for an Amazon tv series later this year.

Get on board now with the next great crime thriller series!

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.