Wilson,
Robert. The Hidden Assassins. Harcourt. Nov 2006. c.464p.
ISBN 0-15-101239-3. $25. Fiction.
On June 6, 2006, a powerful
explosion levels an apartment block in a nondescript area of
Seville, Spain. Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón (introduced
in The Blind Man of Seville) is assigned the case,
which grows more complex once he learns there was a mosque
in the apartment’s basement. The presiding
investigative judge is philanderer Esteban Calderón,
whose marriage to Inés, Falcón’s ex-wife,
has gone bad. Falcón himself is in turmoil
over his one-time lover Consuelo, who is now battling her own
demons. Amid this psychological angst, the
question becomes: Who was responsible for the bombing? Did
the terrorists accidentally detonate the military-grade explosive,
or was this an anti-Muslim attack? Although the psychological
distress of some of minor characters occasionally distracts,
British writer Wilson does an excellent job of laying out the
elaborate investigative procedures to be followed
after a major terrorist attack. And, as in his earlier works
(e.g., The Vanished Hand), his characters lead dramatically
disturbing inner lives. For popular fiction collections.