City of Good Death

When the victim of a crime is an innocent person, it is easy to get upset. When it is a bad guy, would you see him as a victim or would you see it as poetic justice, as a good death? This is the question at the root of City of Good Death, the first in a series following Elisenda Domènech, set in the Catalonian city of Girona. I lived in Spain for many years and I know a lot about the South, but Catalonia is as much of a foreign country as Norway. I enjoyed learning about the legends, traditions and characteristics of the city. Elisenda and her team are likable, especially Pau, the caporal of Andalusian descent who is more Catalonian than anyone born in the region. The chase to find the killer and prevent more murders is well paced. The unintended consequences, turning neighbor against neighbor and encouraging pettiness and nastiness amongst normal citizens, makes you think. What I liked the least was the aggression and harassment that Elisenda has to contend with, being a woman in a man’s world. I'd like to think it is exaggerated but I fear it's not. A nice mystery.

This a very well written and exciting murder mystery that does much more than just tickle your whodunit fancy.  It is a guide to the Catalan city of Girona, its history and mythology, all of which is so vividly described that you could almost be there.  There is the tension between the Catalan and Spanish languages, cultures and identities, and the on-going legacy of the Franco years.  But above all else, there is the moral dimension.   The murderer is making the reader, along with all the characters in the book, “decide where we stand. Where we draw the line.”  The first murder victim is mourned by nobody – not really even his family – but as the murders continue, public sentiment becomes more and more divided:  “The ones taking a stance against cultural imperialism but drawing the line at killing for it against the ones who didn't. ... the ones who stood for or against his fate. The young against the old, the traditionalists against the progressive, the reasonable against the righteous and every shade in between. Those whom people chose to protect and those to threaten.”  While we all have people, or groups of people whom we would like to see brought low, would we wish them dead?  Would we actually kill them?  Is the vigilante ever right?  The heroine , Elisenda Domenech, strongly feels that as a police officer  “It's my job to find who did it and to see that justice is done. That doesn't change, no matter who the victim is”.  Not everyone agrees.  To solve the murders, Elisandra has to battle not only the local criminals, but also her own colleagues, lawyers, the press and most of all the judges who have their own agendas:  “Man hanging by a rope tied to his wrists from the window of a derelict building, pool of blood on the ground below, man's nose a distant memory, and the judge had taken an hour to come to the conclusion that it was suspicious”.  Serial murderers are bad for the city, therefore there is no serial murderer.  The first victim is a crime boss, therefore the murders are “'Gang-related, Sotsinspectora Domènech,' the judge had replied. 'That is how you will conduct the investigation”.   It is very soon clear that the judge is wrong.  Elisandra conducts the cases along the lines she believes to be right, and is thrown into the world of myths, legends and the symbols that have evolved throughout the long history of Girona.   There are twists and turns all over the place.   So many characters appear suspicious, and the final revelation of the murderer is a real surprise.  This book works on so many levels and I fully recommend it.  I also want to visit Girona!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.
The book is set in Girona, Spain.  Unfortunately I've never been there, so I think there was some references I didn't quite catch, but I enjoyed the scenic descriptions never the less. The first murder victim is a bad guy, so nobody cares, isn't it .... But when there's more, then it gets complicated.  I really enjoyed the different viewpoints regarding good and bad, and can't wait to read more by this author.