Red Queen

Jon Gutiérrez es un inspector caído en desgracia que debe convencer a Antonia Scott para que vuelva a hacer lo que mejor sabe: resolver problemas casi imposibles, siempre relacionados con crímenes y similares. Y no cuento más.

Porque ‘Reina Roja’ (2018), del escritor Juan Gómez-Jurado, es un magnífico thriller que no da respiro al lector. Los primeros capítulos son de lo más adictivo que he leído en mucho tiempo. Personajes atractivos, humor socarrón, sarcástico, del que me gusta. Best Seller del bueno. A mí me ha encantado.

I am always happy to discover a new police procedural with quirky characters. Equally excited to discover a writer I know nothing about. This book was an over-the top, out of the park fascinating psychological roller coaster with great dialog and I loved every page. The eccentricities of the characters and what they get up to are outrageously contemplated, parsed and intersected as they circle the proverbial drain. Of course there is a murder or two or three, of course the killer is there and gone and back again and of course it is down to seconds ….

Everything to gain and nothing to lose by reading this book. Looking forward to the next installment in the series. Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy.

Two unique detectives take on a difficult case. Jon Guiterrez is a disgraced cop. He was filmed planting drugs in a pimp's car and now faces potential criminal charges. He's approached by a man who calls himself Mentor who will make everything go away if he just does one small favor for him.

Antonia Scott has a gifted forensic mind, but a personal tragedy caused a mental breakdown. Now all she does is spend nights in hospital with her comatose husband and days in her empty apartment. Jon has to convince her to take a case assigned by Mentor.

The body of a young boy has been found drained of blood and posed in his parents' house in an exclusive and very secure neighborhood of Madrid. He had been kidnapped and a demand was made to his show more mother who runs one of Europe's largest banks. When the demand wasn't met, the boy was killed. There is a lot of pressure to cover up the crime.

Then the daughter of the world's richest man is kidnapped, and another demand is sent to her father. Her father isn't going to meet the demand which leaves Antonia and Jon just a few days to find and rescue her. But the regular police don't want to cooperate since they are led by a real glory hound who sees solving the case as the road to fame and promotion he desperately wants.

Not only are Jon and Antonia avoiding notice from the villains, but they have to avoid the police too. Antonia's keen observation skills and unconventional mind help them discover clues that the police don't. But the villain has a new plan in mind: kidnap Antonia's four-year-old son.

I enjoyed this story which was translated from the Spanish and is the start of a trilogy very popular in Spain. The characters of Jon and Antonia were very complex and nuanced. The mystery was both gritty and involved. I'm looking forward to reading more about these two unconventional detectives. show less

The title Red Queen made me curious, but it was not what I expected. The author is unfamiliar to me, but the cover made me curious, with #1 International bestseller. Then, I read the blurb, and thought this could be a winner for me. And boy was it. Antonia Scott was so much more than I expected and I love that her ‘partner’ is a disgraced police officer. I love when a characters can find redemption, and I feel he will.

Antonia Scott allows herself to think of suicide no more than three minutes a day.

Does that intrigue you? It sure did me. Why did she think of suicide at all? Isn’t she a gifted forensic investigator? A personal tragedy leaves her with a heavy sense of guilt that she cannot escape. I am not going to tell you why. show more You will have to discover that for yourself.

Inspector Jon Gutierrez is a disgraced police officer, suspended from work. He has always been harassed because of being gay in a male driven society. He loves to cook. He is not fat, just rock solid. I think a lot of cooks love to eat. For others, like me, it is more like fuel. He has been tasked with bringing Antonia out of her self imposed isolation and has no idea what he is coming his way.

“My brain…isn’t normal. I can do things others find impossible.”

When I found the reason for that, I had ambivalent feelings. I guess, if it was what she wanted, who am I to judge.

Red Queen started out slow for me, but I think that is Juan Gomez Jurado’s way of preparing me for what is to come. The only problem I had was when he went back and forth between Jon and Inspector Gutierrez. It was early in the book and took me a little while to go with it and quit questioning whether he was talking about two people instead of one.

‘You sacrifice a pawn for the sake of continuing the game. Because the only thing that matters is to keep on playing.’

As we delve into the mystery, the suspense slowly rises. The story deepens. The sacrifices are costly, the players out for themselves

When Jon brings a rubber plant to her place, trying to make the barren room feel like a home, I cracked up. And…well, I can’t say. I will say this, though, the story kept getting better, the characters more real, foibles and all.The last quarter or more of the book was unputdownable. My desire to know them better, to work another case with them, intrigued me.

After the story is over, Juan Gomez Jurado shared some information that had me going to the internet to find out more for myself. Now…that is the sign of a great writer.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Red Queen by Juan Gomez Jurado.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com show less

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Inspector Jon Gutierrez, a well-intentioned police officer, finds himself in dire straits, suspended without pay from the force. Caught planting heroin in a pimp’s car in order to protect a young girl, he’s also facing charges of falsifying documents, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, and professional disloyalty. If convicted, he faces prison for as much as ten years.

As he sits waiting for what comes next, a man calling himself Mentor approaches him, offering Jon a way out of his troubles. In exchange, Jon must meet a friend of Mentor’s and take her dancing.

Antonia Scott is the friend. All he needed to do, Mentor said, was get the woman into the car. But Jon has no idea of what will show more happen when he gets her into the car. Antonia, of course, refuses.

Mentor and Jon have a phone conversation in which Jon learns some things about the mysterious woman living in an attic apartment with no furniture, and he decides to try again. But Antonia requests the answers to two questions; if he has the right answers, she will go with him.

And so begins an adventure with a good policeman and a woman with a gift that allows her to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling mysteries. Their case involves the murder of a teen-aged boy and the kidnapping of the daughter of one of Spain’s richest men. But there’s something more, something sinister involved . . . and Antonia is the only one who has a chance of discovering the truth before tragedy befalls someone else.

Will she find a way? And why does the mysterious Mentor need Jon’s help?

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In this, the first in a trilogy involving Jon and Antonia, readers meet the inspector and the gifted woman, two well-drawn, engaging characters. Their relationship is the linchpin in the telling of the tale as readers slowly learn the backstory of each individual.

A strong sense of place anchors the narrative; its gripping premise is original and intriguing, yielding an adventure filled with both danger and fascination.

With its ever-present undercurrent of tension, the unfolding story is both gritty and compelling. The plot takes several unexpected twists, keeping readers guessing as the suspense-filled tale slowly reveals its secrets.

Readers are sure to find themselves pulled into the telling of the tale from the outset; the author’s skillful weaving of the events into an unputdownable tale creates a story that readers will find impossible to set aside until they’ve turned the final page.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley
#RedQueen #NetGalley show less

Había visto comentarios muy por encima de este libro, no había querido leer ninguna reseña, tal vez si lo hubiera hecho, otro gallo me habría cantado.

A ver, veía muchas estrellitas en calificación y comentarios como ¡me encantó!, así que bueno, tenía mis expectativas realmente altas, además tengo que ser honesta, es que me esperaba algo muy diferente, he cometido dos errores con este libro, el primero es que debí de haberlo leído en cuanto salió sin tener todavía opiniones de nadie y segundo ya que no lo leí en cuanto salió, debí haberme tomado la molestia de leer todas las reseñas.

Así pues, voy a hacer esta reseña lo más objetiva posible que pueda, el libro se lo merece.
El argumento es fabuloso, original y show more diferente, realmente me ha encantado, me ha parecido que Juan Gomez-Juarado ha creado no solo un ambiente original en cuanto a lo que presenta en su trama, sino que también nos ha entregado a dos protagonistas que realmente son increíbles, me han encantado los dos.

Antonia, una mujer atormentada, rara, friki, con una personalidad muy acorde a lo que se supone que ella es una vez que la conocemos, no voy a ahondar más en su presentación, solo decir que como personaje es fuerte, creíble, fácil de querer, fácil de empatizar con ella, con su personalidad y con todo lo que representa, realmente el autor se ha pulido creando a este personaje.

Jon (que no está gordo), es un hombre que te roba el corazón, bonachón, leal, amable, y precisamente es esa bondad lo que lo hace terminar metido en un garete y que lo lleva a conocer a Antonia.

Son realmente un tándem fuerte y genial se roban la historia, punto, todo lo demás es secundario, el libro se lo roban ellos, son el peso y la fuerza principal.

Por otro lado en un principio creo que me ha sorprendido el tono en la narrativa, no me esperaba eso y es por eso que digo que debí de haber leído las reseñas, realmente esperaba que fuera un tono sombrío, serio, no sé como expresarlo, pero la narrativa es ligera, no solo es que todo el libro esta contado en un tono muy desenfadado, tiene toques de humor que me han sacado las risas en algunos momentos muy a pesar de la seriedad de todo el tema que se trataba, ahora, esto no es malo, al contrario, a mí me gusta, solo que no lo esperaba.

En términos generales me ha gustado, con lo que me quedo son con Jon y Antonia, todos los demás puntos negativos no los voy a mencionar porque creo que son cosas que podrían generar spoilers, pero de recomendarlo, queda recomendado, pero por favor no esperen leer un libro de novela negra al uso, este libro tiene ese fondo, pero esta narrado en un tono muy diferente a la generalidad de esos libros. show less

Antonia Scott was once part of an elite but secret European Union crime-fighting unit, Red Queen, devoted to foiling master criminals until a personal trauma made her quit. Disgraced police officer Jon Gutierrez is offered a way of redeeming himself…get Scott to come back to Red Queen and his suspension will disappear. Easier said than done. Needless to say, he was successful but his involvement with Scott doesn’t end there. They are assigned to investigate the murder of the son of a prominent Madrid family, a murder and investigation that must stay out of the public eye.

The murderer has left no trace and clues are virtually non-existent. To make matters worse, the daughter of the wealthiest man in the world has been kidnapped and show more her father is given 5 days to meet the kidnapper’s ‘impossible’ demand. Scott and Gutierrez believe the same person is behind both crimes and time is ticking away.

More thriller than mystery police procedural, Gomez-Jurado humanizes both Scott and Gutierrez by providing snippets of their history in the form of flashbacks as they bond and learn to rely on each other. In addition, you get to learn a little of the history of Spain, including information about the underground aqueducts.

The action is non-stop as are the twists and turns, both wrong turns and right ones. I will admit that I had to suspend belief occasionally, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. Taking place in the warm Spanish summer, this is a big change from the cold desolate climate of my Scandinavian noir favorites.

The author lightens the drama with some intermittent chuckle-inducing humor.

The next book in the series, Black Wolf, will be translated into English in 2024 and White Knight has not yet been translated. show less