La Red Púrpura - Carmen Mola

I remarked in my earlier review of La novia gitana, the first book in Carmen Mola's Inspectora Elena Blanco series, that possibly the least convincing aspect of the book - which nonetheless was quite a brilliant thriller - was the characterisation of the inspector Blanco herself. Chief of the specialist murder investigation team BAC, Brigada de Análysis de Casos, The Case Analysis Brigade, the characterisation seemed sensationalist and superficial. She drives a Lada, likes grappa, singing Italian karaoke songs and likes having sex with strangers in SUVs in the underground parking of the plaza Mayor in Madrid, where she has an apartment.

The revelation that these quirks were just her way of combatting the pain and guilt over the disappearance of her son eight years previously didn't make that any more human. It still felt like cheap, lazy characterisation. Over the course of La novia gitana, Blanco was rounded out more and that novel brought that trauma back to the fore at its conclusion. Wrapping up the case of the gypsy bride successfully, Blanco received a message that potentially reveals what became of her missing child. Without wanting to get into spoilers, even though Mola's books are inexplicably not yet available in English translation, it appears that Lucas has fallen into the hands of a criminal gang that broadcasts live snuff killings on the dark web run by an organisation called La Red Púrpura (The Purple Network). 

You can't imagine a worse nightmare for anyone who has lost their child, but such is the dark content of Mola’s writing that the authors manage to come up with something even more horrific. Evidently the next case for Blanco and the BAC team (who are unaware of the connection with Lucas) is to find those responsible for abducting, abusing, torturing and killing young adults and children. The organisers obviously have plenty of safeguards on the dark web to prevent anyone tracing where the live events are being broadcast from, but they manage to find a thread to start unravelling the activities of the organisation when they trace and arrest one young man who has been subscribing to the broadcasts.

Among the criminal activities of the Purple Network is a gambling ring which runs from high stakes poker to betting on illegal fights and much worse. Some members of the BAC, including Elena who has more at stake than most, find that they have to go undercover to infiltrate the lower orders of the organisation in order to gain information into the scale of their activities, who is running the operation and how to break it. That presents some challenges and dangers to say the least.

As you can imagine, the content of La Red Púrpura is very dark indeed (negrísimo according to one review quote on the back cover of the book), but anyone coming to this book will already know what to expect after the cases of murder by maggots eating the brains of their live victims in La novia gitana. What you can also expect from another Carmen Mola million copy bestseller is also already evident in La novia gitana, and that is that it is hugely addictive reading. It doesn't rely on strong characterisation - it's ok and gradually still being filled out - or cliffhanger chapters, but there is more than enough in the bizarre and troubling nature of the criminal investigation itself for you to want to race through this as quickly as humanly possible. 

If I have any complaint, it's possibly that it all races along too quickly to be credible for the BAC to be able to get solid leads and act on them. Yes the opening operation fails, but after that a lot of chances fall their way a little too conveniently and there are a few false notes that I didn't really feel were there in La novia gitana (Elena’s 'leisure' activities aside). On the plus side, despite the horrors that are observed in delving into the operations of the Purple Network, we are mercifully spared detailed descriptions and blow by blow accounts of what goes on. The plotting arranged between the three pseudonymous authors is enough however to ensure that there is not a moment wasted, plenty to keep up with, and the promise of much more in the series.

Reading notes: La Red Púrpura by Carmen Mola was originally published in Spain in 2019. I read a Debolsillo paperback, 16th reprint, 2024. Although I think it's strange that highly successful foreign language thrillers like this aren't published in English translation, I presume it's because there are simply more than enough UK and US thriller bestsellers already being published in English without having to seek out foreign language ones (though not for me). Both La novia gitana and La Red Púrpura have been adapted to a TV series, so it's more likely you would come across them in that format than in book translation.