The Long Siesta
by Nick Sweet
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Pub Date 1 Sep 2015 | Archive Date 9 Sep 2017
Holland House | Grey Cells Press
Description
A sadistic serial killer is at large in Seville - with a taste for priests; drug-addicted Detective Velazquez is working against the clock to uncover the murderer while tackling his own problems, including the kidnapping of his bullfighter girlfriend. 1998, Seville. Summer. An elderly priest is found murdered in horrific circumstances; Inspector Velasquez assumes at first a junkie is on the loose. But then a second man of the cloth shows up in the Guadalquivir River, followed by a Russian gangster, and Velázquez realizes he has a puzzle of major proportions on his hands. Are they politically motivated ? Are the three murders linked? And if so, how? His boss, Comisario Alonso, is breathing down his neck and wanting answers, fast. And then danger begins to creep a little too close to home ... In a bullfight, the bull sometimes wins. The question is, who is the bull? Velasquez, or the murderer?
Advance Praise
"The flawed
hero? Check. A kick-ass heroine? Check. Priests with something to hide? Check.
Russian mafia? Check. Rent boys and prostitutes? Check and, indeed, check.
The result though is not at all hackneyed.
Thrown together on the streets of Seville and more provincial Andalucia, these
characters blend into a concoction that's both Sweet and sour. Or perhaps that
should be bitter Sweet?"
- Matthew Hirtes, Huffington Post
One might have
thought that Spanish-set crime was territory sewed up by the likes of Robert
Wilson, but Nick Sweet proves to have the measure of the genre with The Long
Siesta. This concise novel is set 1998 Seville. An elderly priest has been
gruesomely killed, and Nick Sweet's protagonist Inspector Velasquez quickly
finds himself with a slew of trouble involving Russian gangsters and further
ecclesiastical murders. Velasquez proves to be an intriguing and idiosyncratic
protagonist, and Sweet evokes his sultry locale with maximum vividness.
- Barry Forshaw
Seville s priests
are being murdered for their past sins, and the only man who can get to the
truth is a cop with a secret heroin addiction and a girlfriend who dreams of
being a Toreador. Nick Sweet s The Long Siesta is a full-blooded neo-noir, as
gritty as any 1970s Hollywood thriller, and as colourful as the latest Mexican
telenovela.
- Nicholas Blincoe
"Not for the
faint-hearted, The Long Siesta is an enthralling glimpse into an unfamiliar
world. Confident and sharp, Inspector Velazquez is a complex man who knows what
makes his beat in Seville tick."
- Nick Quantrill
The Long Siesta is
a pacy read that doesn't wear out its welcome. It has a troubled hero, an
under-used backdrop and a storyline that mixes the horrors of the past and the
novel's present to bring us a new series to keep an eye out for.If the second
was coming out tomorrow I'd say Hasta Manana.
--Douglas Skelton
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781909374744 |
| PRICE | £8.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Elaine T, Reviewer
I would like to thank Netgalley and Holland House for a review copy of The Long Siesta, a police procedural featuring Inspector Jefe Velázquez of the Seville police.
Velázquez is called out to a murder scene where an old priest has been brutally murdered. With lying and disappearing witnesses, another death, some distractions in his personal life and pressure from above he has his work cut out.
The long Siesta is a fairly simple read. The plotting is good and holds the attention but it has no depth. Velázquez stumbles from one scenario to the next with no real analysis, just reaction, perhaps because he is a heroin addict. I'm aware that there are functioning addicts but this addiction doesn't ring true and can be viewed as his quirk because it doesn't seem to affect his life or his job, apart from needing a fix. How he came by the addiction is somewhat shrouded in mystery but probably inspired by The French Connection.
This novel is an easy way to pass a few hours as the plot will hold your attention but not ask you to think too much.
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