The Water Rituals

January 4, 2021
Set in Spain’s Basque region, Sáenz’s strong sequel to The Silence of the White City finds Insp. Unai López de Ayala unable to speak due to a head injury he suffered in the previous book. In addition, he’s unsure whether the child his boss and lover, Deputy Supt. Alba Díaz de Salvatierra, is carrying belongs to him or to her deceased serial killer husband. Despite Unai’s impairment, his partner, Insp. Estíbaliz Gauna, calls upon him when Estí’s first girlfriend, graphic novelist Annabel Lee, whom Unai knows, is found dead in a remote mountain location, hung by her feet with her head submerged in a Celtic cauldron. Another ritual murder follows, that of a close friend of Unai’s who attended the camp where he and Annabel met as teenagers in 1992. The apparent death in 1993 of the camp leader’s daughter is also cause for Unai and Estí to investigate anyone connected to the camp back then. Sáenz smoothly blends the police work with a close look at the psychologies of those involved. Readers who like crime fiction with a focus on matters of the heart will be well satisfied.

March 15, 2021
A righteous police inspector is propelled into examining his past while facing personal and professional challenges in the present. In the Spanish city of Vitoria, Inspector Unai L�pez de Ayala, known as Kraken, gets a double whammy from his lover and boss, Deputy Superintendent Alba D�az de Salvatierra: She's pregnant, and the father might not be him but her dead husband, Nancho, a serial killer. His pursuit of Nancho in The Silence of the White City (2020) left Kraken with serious head injuries that have impaired his ability to speak. Though he narrates in a gritty first person, he regularly visits a speech therapist and rarely talks to others, preferring to conduct conversations in the texts peppered throughout. A message from Kraken's partner, Est�baliz, brings more bad news: Kraken's first girlfriend, graphic novelist Ana Bel�n Lia�o, has been murdered. Intermittent flashbacks to 1992 present their idyllic teen romance and provide an intriguing counterpoint to the main noir narrative. S�enz's large, boldly painted canvas includes a plague of inexplicable suicides by young women. Kraken's collaboration with his own group of colorful irregulars--hacker extraordinaire Golden Girl; Tasio Ortiz de Z�rate, long imprisoned as a serial killer but exonerated; street-wise skater MatuSalem; and others--is this story's most enjoyable feature. The murder of one of Kraken's old friends indicates both that he's dealing with a serial killer and that he might be the killer's focus. Dark and juicy, the middle entry in S�enz's epic trilogy immerses readers in a vibrant, dangerous city.

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