THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD BY ROBERT WILSON

Robert Wilson writes erudite and well researched thrillers and his Javier Falcon series set in Seville deals boldly with subjects we would rather forget in our everyday lives.

The Ignorance of Blood is the fourth in a quartet of books and it was preceded by The Hidden Assassins which I reviewed here and here.

Javier Falcon, Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homicidos, has promised the citizens of Seville he will catch those responsible for the bombing that occurred in the opening pages of The Hidden Assassins. Luckily Robert Wilson gives us a handy update of Javier Falcon's ongoing investigation into that bombing and the associated murders.

"In that period around the 6th June bombing there were five expressions of violence.

The first was the murder of Tateb Hassani, who was vital to the conspiracy for his drafting in Arabic script of the extremists' plans for taking over Andalucia............

The second expression of violence was the bomb itself which, as I said, was designed to point the finger at Muslim extremism, whilst increasing the prestige of Fuerza Andalucia, making them the preferred partners of the ruling Partido Popular.'

"The third, presumably were Esteban Calderon's murder of his wife," said Zorrita, which derailed the investigation into the Seville bombing."

"And four and five were the executions of Lucrezio Arenas and Cesar Benito," said Falcon. "They had to be killed once we had caught the other half of the conspiracy,because there were direct links between them. It would only be a matter of time before Arenas and Benito gave up the bombers they had employed."

"So there's a clear motive in every case.'

"Except Calderon,' said Falcon.

Javier Falcon begins to believe that perhaps Calderon, the investigating judge in the bombing case, did not murder his wife Ines [who happens to be Falcon's ex wife] but was set up by his beautiful Cuban mistress Marisa Moreno at the instigation of the Russian Mafia.

Javier and Cristina Ferrera, a detective who is an ex-nun, question Marisa on her connections with terrifying consequences for Javier's girlfriend Consuelo Jimenez.

While Yacoub, Javier's Moroccan friend who is spying for the Spanish Government Intelligence CNI is faced with a terrible dilemma.

I am now on page 225 with a long way to go but this is an enjoyable but violent novel. Even though we suspect Javier Falcon is on the right track and it seems a simple thriller you do have to concentrate to grasp the interrelations between the characters and follow the complexities of the story.

"What do you mean , they don't have CCTV? she asked.

"Why don't you have CCTV? In England I've heard they have CCTV everywhere.....even on roundabouts in the middle of nowhere."

Thanks to Harper Collins for supplying the book. To be continued.