The Watcher In The Pine - Hardcover

Pawel, Rebecca

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156947379X ISBN 13: 9781569473795

Publisher: Soho Press Inc, 2005

Synopsis

Spain, 1940. The remote mountain village of Potes is Carlos Tejada's first independent command. Elena Fernandez, his pregnant wife, accompanies him to his new post. They soon discover that his "promotion" is a mixed blessing. They arrive in a snowstorm and there is no one to meet the train. The officers of the small Guardia Civil post seem hostile, as do the villagers. The inhabitants of Potes are strongly Republican in their sympathies and engaged both in smuggling and guerilla activities.
They face a choice between living in the jail and foisting themselves as boarders onto a woman whose son was executed by the Nationalist government. And Tejada discovers that the officer he is replacing was shot to death from ambush; his killer is still at large. Then he learns that a new outbreak of the Civil War, financed from abroad, may be about to take place with Potes as its epicenter. And Elena, whose Republican sympathies have become known, is involved.

About this title

Review

Praise for "The Watcher in the Pine"
The hostilities are never over in the mournful mysteries that Rebecca Pawel sets in the devastated cities of Spain in the aftermath of the civil war . . . Pawel frames the complex ethical issues she raises in the divided loyalties of her series hero . . . and his wife, Elena, whose sympathies are entirely with the Republican cause. Until the family wounds are healed, Pawel argues, the war will never end.
"The New York Times Book Review
"
Part history lesson, part whodunit, this story is rich in landscape and political detail. "
Mystery Scene
" The Edgar-winning author tells her story in spare prose, befitting the bleakness of the political and physical landscape . . . The richness of historical detail and the loving but uneasy relationship between Tejada and Elena offer their own rewards to the reader.
"The Denver Post
"
Pawel winner of an Edgar for the series debut, "Death of a Nationalist" has managed to capture the Spanish Civil War period in thrilling detail . . . Her writing is thoughtful for thoughtful readers. Her understanding of the times of which she writes, the fractured loyalties and seething vengeances, is eclipsed only be her insights into the human heart. "
The Plain Dealer
" A fabulous historical whodunit. "
Midwest Book Review"
Equal parts history lesson and crime novel, displaying both offhand cruelty and welcome depth.
"Kirkus Reviews""

About the Author

Rebecca Pawel is twenty-eight years old and a graduate of Columbia University. She lives in New York City and teaches Spanish and English in a Brooklyn high school. She is the author of Death of a Nationalist, Law of Return, and The Watcher in the Pine. Rebecca frequently travels to Spain.

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Press Inc
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 156947379X
• ISBN 13: 9781569473795
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288