To The Last Page

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 it...