April in Spain

 by John Banville

This is the second mystery book I have read by Banville.  He used to write more general fiction and in fact one the Booker Prize for one of his books.  I wonder why he switched to mysteries.

I love his writing.  He has incredible descriptions of settings, etc.  He also does a superb job of describing his characters and what motivates them.

The story is about a coroner who is reluctantly vacationing in Spain with his second wife.  The guy has a lot of issues, he doesn't like change, he doesn't want to be anywhere but home.  One day he sees a girl in a restaurant and is convinced that she is a friend of his daughter who was supposedly killed by her brother a few years ago.  The brother admitted to the killing and killed himself but the body of his sister was never found.

He contacts his daughter in England, who is having issues with her boyfriend.  He tells her of his suspicions and convinces her to come to Spain to see if he is correct.

Before she leaves England the man's daughter contacts the police and the girl's uncle telling them of her father's suspicion.  It seems a weak case but the police decide to send an officer along with her to Spain.  The uncle is shocked and dismayed at this news and makes arrangements for a hitman to go and kill his niece.  He feels news of her being alive and knowledge of some family business dealings will ruin him as a politiican and businessman.

The man's daughter does meet up with her friend who is working as a doctor in the local hospital.

The author does a great job or portraying the cornoner, is very supportive, encouraging wife, the psycophathic hitman, and others.  The books comes to a shocking climax as the hitman arrives in the restaurant of the hotel where the coroner, his wife and daughter, the policeman and the friend are sitting. The hitmans kills the coroner's wife and the police officer kills him.  It seemed sad that the poor wife had to die.  We find out that both the girl and her brother were abused by their father and then had an incestual relationship.  The uncle know about this.  He gets his just desserts in the end.

A very intersting book.