Solas set in Spain by Javier Díez Carmona

Submitted: 20th April 2023

This book is just in Spanish at the moment and books like this are why I am so pleased I can read Spanish! The joy of finding books not out yet in English is one of my favourite things to do. It’s like there’s a secret to share but one which I hope that someone willl find, translate and gift to the English-speakers around the world. this is one of them.

This is set in the wildest and remotest part of the Basque Country….A story of secrets, disappearances and depravity.

BookTrail Travel to Solas

Boarding Pass Information: Basque Country, Spain

Author guide: Javier Diez Carmona

Genre: Spanish crime fiction

Food and drink to accompany: Pinxtos and good wine

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BookTrail Travel to Solas

This is a series of thrillers written in Spanish that need to be out in the wider world. This is the second in the series and is a standalone but is as brutal and raw as any Scandi thriller out there.

Agurtzane Loizaga is a professor at the University of Bilbao and has only recently moved to the remote area with her girlfriend. This girlfriend disappears one night however and the police soon discover that she didn’t leave of her own accord.

Elsewhere, Osmany Arechabala is an ex-military originally from Cuba but has been living in Bilbao for months. An old friend asks him for help one day as his daughter has gone missing. Osmany joins forces with an officer of the Ertzaintza police on sick leave, but he has no idea what he is getting himself into. The blurb says that ‘we go to the rugged heart of the Basque Country to tell us a story of crimes, hidden vices and a past that refuses to disappear.” and that’s what got me right there and kept me reading.

BookTrail Travel to Solas

This is a fascinating area to set a crime thriller. So much history and politics over the years to make this a character all of its own. The Basque region and its history is one I studied at uni and one I have been fascinated with over the years. It is evoked really well here – all of its nuances, complexities, violence yes – but also it’s beauty, rolling landscapes, wonderful people and culture. Much of the novel is set in an area called Las Encartaciones and this is knonwn as Enkarterri and is one of the most well-known comarcas or districts of the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country, Spain.

The mix of characters, a former military policeman, the background of the Basque country and all its history really brings this novel up a level. Osmany is one of those characters that I was shocked to meet, one that blasted into my subconsious and who now lives there quite frankly. He ain’t taking no prisoners. He gets himself into some very tough and violent situtations here though – talk about being caught in the web!

I do think I should have read Justice, the book that goes before this one as there’s information in here that explains a little better who Osmany is and why he is the way he is. The ending was of a nature that means I will have to read book three.

So, I would read these books in order. Then sit back and wait for the explosion!