August 2023: The New Wife by JP Delaney – MALLORCA

4th August 2023

The New Wife by JP Delaney, mystery set on Mallorca.

The setting of this novel is very strong. Most of the story is set around Finca Síquia, set above fictional Cauzacs – about 25 miles as the crow flies from Palma. The house is set in the Tramuntana Mountains, NW Mallorca and the story offers an excellent feel for the island, from the donkey trails that surround the property, the all consuming heat, the food, all rounded off with a spattering of Mallorquí and some interesting facts about life on the island. The author clearly loves Mallorca.

Finn and Jess have inherited Fina Síquia from their bohemian artist father, who recently passed away. It becomes all too apparent that he had recently married Ruenza, who is the grieving wife and who continues to live in run-down building with her adult daughter Roze. By the time the siblings are informed, the funeral has already taken place. Finn is tasked with flying to Mallorca to start the legal proceedings and ensure that the occupants are aware that the building and land belongs to the family – to wit Finn and Jess -, an “usufructo” is in place, drawn up by Tomàs, the family lawyer-cum-friend

Ruenza warmly invites Finn to stay with them and he accepts and is taken aback by the renovated state of the building, mostly, it seems the work of the two women. They have clearly invested money in the property which is at odds with their father’s disinterest in maintaining it. Their father was an artist who was unfaithful to their mother, drank excessively and was a verbally aggressive man to all those around. Quite what Ruenza and her daughter might have seen in him is beyond him.

As the days pass, he comes to understand that the women have backstories in their homeland Albania and that his father seemingly died whilst inhaling the wood smoke of oleander bushes, which needed clearing. Anyone who grows up in climates where oleander proliferates will know that it is a highly poisonous plant and eating or inhaling the smoke from burning boughs can be fatal – as Hannibal found when he was moving his troops and many died when they cooked their food on fires stoked with oleander.

Jess, back in England, is trying to keep Finn on the straight and narrow, reminding him to focus on selling the property. She is supported by Tomàs but as time moves on, Finn is becoming more distant, his sister sees him being seduced by the women’s wiles – they clearly have an agenda to stay in the Finca.

I really enjoyed the novel, I was engrossed as the story bowled along and I find the author’s style and story construction convincing. The end, however, felt like it ramped up a gear and became a little frantic, with a dream sequence, and overall it felt neither convincingly nor tightly crafted, which felt out of step with the rest of the novel.

In the author’s note he specifies the particular novel that inspired this book, which adds an interesting insight into the story and the way it unfolds.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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