Water-Blue Eyes Book

Police procedural set in Vigo, in Galicia (Spain). Inspector Leo Caldas investigates the bizarre murder of a saxophone player. He has two leads : the unusual poison used, and the fact that an older gentleman with striking white hair appears at the funeral. From there on he makes his way to the culprit, seconded by his sidekick Rafael.

I found the story and plot to be very average. It became very clear who the murderer had to be, because all the people that Leo had any type of real interaction with were either victims or criminals. So there was no misdirection, no red herrings, none of the puzzles that mystery lovers enjoy. The garden path that Leo was led down, was about a mile wide. Also, I have come to believe that it's a cliche for wanna-be writers of "noir" that their hero should have a disastrous love life and be jazz lovers. And sure enough, it appears that Leo has recently lost someone called Alba, and there are plenty of references to Charles Parker, Errol Garner and other jazz greats. Otherwise, Leo does not seem to have much of a personality, except perhaps when interacting with his father, a vineyard owner with a cantankerous dislike of the Big City.

I think that the author intended for Rafael to bring some comic relief. Rafael, who is from Zaragoza, simply cannot handle the fact that the Galicians tend to respond to a question by another question, or at any rate tend not to respond directly to a direct question. His extremely short fuse while questioning witnesses leads to violent outbursts that I think were not funny at all.

So I found this to be pretty banal fare, even though the series seems to be very popular in Spain.