Law of Return

Pawel's second novel about post-civil war Spain is, in my view, as good as the first, which was excellent. It's a good story with appealing characters and a fresh setting. One of the things I like best, though, is that her hero isn't really heroic, nor is he simply a charming rogue. He's a decent man who isn't always decent, and that's a kind of complexity that many mystery writers seem to avoid. Pawel handles it well, though, and gives us a better novel than the average we're offered.

This is a period of history about which I know very little. Pawel is an excellent writer and has created an interesting, intelligent and complex character in Tejada. On one hand, he will use force if he feels it is "necessary," and yet he is a good man caught in a time of political loyalties. They story is not as gripping as "Death of a Nationalist," which I highly recommend and would read first, but is more of a mystery and suspense set during a time of political turmoil. I was completely caught up by the story and found it a straight-through, four-hour read. Highly recommended.

Carlos Tejada Alonso y Léon, who was introduced to readers in Rebecca Pawel's Edgar Award-winning novel "Death of A Nationalist," has recently been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Guardia Civil and transferred from Madrid to Salamanca, a city famous for its university. Tejada studied law here before joining the Guardia during the Civil War. He is just past thirty years-old - certainly very young to be a lieutenant. However, Tejada's entire profile is unusual for a National Guardsman. He is the second son of a wealthy landowner, a conservative, and a staunch Nationalist. A Falangist, he backed Franco from the beginning. Now he enforces the laws and policies of the Generalissimo's authoritarian government, and searches for "enemies of the state," usually Republicans, who are jailed, sometimes tortured, and frequently killed. Tejada is basically a decent man, a hero of the siege of Toledo - and while I am certainly not an apologist for Fascism, (on the contrary), there must have been some good people who fought and believed in the Nationalist cause, even if they were on the wrong side of history. I wrote in my review of "Death of a Nationalist," that author Rebecca C. Pawel presents the reader with a very interesting dilemma. How does one empathize with a protagonist who is a member of the Fascist cause, one of the victors in Spain's bitter, bloody Civil War? How does one embrace, in a literary fashion, someone who works to enforce Fascist policies? This continues to be an issue in "Law of Return," although personally, I resolved my problems with Tejada in the last book. I find too many admirable qualities in him to pass over because of his politics - which I am definitely not in agreement with. I accept him for the man he is, and for the man he has the potential to become. It is 1940, and although the Civil War has been over for a year, fear, paranoia, hunger and shortages are everywhere. One of Tejada's new responsibilities in Salamanca is overseeing local parolees who must report to him weekly. There are approximately seventy-five, and many are considered troublemakers because of their Socialist leanings and/or former affiliations. Of particular interest are a group of four, all former university professors called "the petitioners." These men are labeled "petitioners" because of a historical incident which occurred on October 12, 1936, at a public ceremony at the University of Salamanca commemorating Dia de la Raza. Keynote speaker, Falangist General Millan de Astray finished his address with the slogan, "Viva la Muerte!" ("Long Live Death!"). Miguel de Unamuno, a great Spanish author, educator, humanist and philosopher, was standing next to the general on the platform. He said, "Vencera pero no convencera."). ("You will win but you will not convince"). Enraged, Millan had to be physically restrained from striking Unamuno, who was immediately removed from his position at the university and placed under house arrest. He died two

Rebecca Pawel has a lot of things going for her series of Carlos Tejada crime novels. First of all, she has set her story in a great time and place. Its 1940 and France has just fallen to the Nazis and Spain is recovering from a protracted and brutal civil war. Facism is spreading its terror throughout Western Europe. This is the time and place where so many great suspense novelists like Eric Ambler and Alan Furst have planted their stories. The hero/anti-hero is a fascist officer in the Guardia Civil. Tejada is a complex hero. He does not have a problem rounding up Reds and other fellow travellers. Tejada is no stranger to obtaining information using the third degree. However, he is not your standard fill in the blank evil (Gestapo, NKVD)totalitarian cop. He may be serving a bankrupt regime but he has a nuanced view of the world. Finally, Rebecca Pawel is a very talented writer. She has all the gifts that the above average crime writer. Her intelligence radiates throughout the story. However, where things go wrong is when the novel loses its focus and drifts from being a crime novel into a love story. The chemistry between the two lovers is good but in the end their love story douses out the essential crime element of the novel. My advice is start the series from the beginning. One will have more patience with this story, if one has read the novel that goes before it.

In 1940, Carlos Tejada looks forward to his promotion to lieutenant in the Guardia Civil and his assignment to the university town of Salamanca as he studied there before the Civil War exploded. He does not expect his job to tax his brain as he has to keep track of parolees consisting of former professors who became classified as convicts for defying a Franco decree. Also returning to the city is Carlos' college lover Elena Fernandez, who lost her job because she was politically incorrect. Carlos must report on her father as one of his parolees to his superiors. When a paroleegoes missing, Carlos investigates. He follows Elena to the border where she claims she meets her father to take him home. Actually, Elena is helping a family friend, German Jewish Professor Joseph Meyer, flee France before the French return him to Germany for ethnic cleansing. Will Carlos do his duty to Spain and turn in a woman he still desires and might be a killer or will he help sneak the twosome into Salamanca while also trying to solve the murder of his missing parolee? Though Carlos is part of the law and involved in a murder mystery, LAW OF RETURN is more an entertaining historical thriller that spotlights the beginning of Franco's long rule in Spain. Of interest is that though Spain is Fascist like Germany and Italy, the Jewish Meyers feels that this is a safer spot for him than Vichy France and obviously Germany. Readers who take pleasure in a deep historical tale will find Rebecca Pawel's story providing plenty of pleasure. Harriet Klausner