Lead Review
- Book: A Silent Death
- Location: Costa del Sol
- Author: Peter May
Peter May is an author who researches his locations extremely well – be they the Hebrides (The Lewis Trilogy and Coffin Road), China (The China Thrillers) or, in the case of A Silent Death, the Costa del Sol and Southern Spain. Each location rings really true – music to TripFiction’s ears! He also writes extremely good books.
A Silent Death is a more than competent thriller. The protagonist is detective Mackenzie, a troubled Scot, sent over to Spain to escort Cleland, a notorious fugitive gangster, back to face justice in the UK. But Cleland escapes from the Spanish police and Mackenzie is asked to stay on to help track him down. He works alongside Christina from the Spanish police force. Mackenzie is in some ways the typical flawed detective, but he is more than this – he has an impressive intelligence and takes no prisoners from those who do not understand his thought processes. He rubs many up the wrong way with his outspoken – some would say unthinking – comments.
Christina is married to Antonio, a local car dealer, and has a young son, Lucas. They all feature heavily in the story. She also has an aunt, Ana, who is involved in the plot. She suffers from Usher Syndrome, which means she is both deaf and blind. She arouses sympathy in some pretty unexpected quarters (no more for fear of a spoiler…).
The books progresses through some very violent scenes to an eventful climax on the rock of Gibraltar where Cleland is organising a major drug deal with Mackenzie and Christina in hot pursuit.
A Silent Death is a very well-worked thriller. It exposes a side of the Costa del Sol which is (I hope) not that familiar to holiday makers. The story moves up and down the coast from Marbella to Estepona and back again, and the landscape and towns are well described as background to the plot as it unfolds.
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