About the book
The mysterious disappearance of a girl in the marshes of the Ter River, a detective marked by his past and a disturbed mind are the main attractions of this fast-paced crime thriller. This novel written by four hands, between mother and son, is addictive, direct and raw, but also an emotional and different story. Its authors, Beatriz Roger and Luiso Soldevila, shed light on the darkness. Because in idyllic places nothing is what it seems either.
One afternoon, a few days before Christmas, little Bashira disappears without a trace in the gardens of a hostel in the marshes of the Ter River, on the Costa Brava. While Commissioner Héctor Narváez and his team mobilize to find any trace of the girl, detective Nico Ros, who has arrived in the town of Llafranc to spend the holidays with his family, receives an assignment at the same address. Jamal Daher, a well-known drug trafficker in the area and Nico’s childhood friend, contacts him again and hires him to reinforce the police investigation.
«He notices that someone is watching him. She looks up at the top of the house and sees a curtain swinging slightly in one of the upstairs windows. “Someone is spying.”
Despite feeling uncomfortable with Jamal’s request, the detective will not stop his efforts to locate the little girl. Is someone keeping her or did she leave the gardens of her own free will? Why hasn’t anyone asked for a ransom yet? Has she been alerted to other disappearances? Despite the difficulties of the case and the memories of a painful past, Nico will rely on the loyalty of the police team dedicated to clarifying the event, with Commissioner Narváez at the head and Sergeant Marcos Quiroga. Although time seems to go against Nico’s wishes, this will not be the only obstacle he will have to face.
The inclement winter weather in an idyllic place during the summer, the complicated landscape and the secrets and lies of the inhabitants of the marshes will complicate a search against the clock. With every hour that passes, the hope of finding Bashira alive diminishes. Unexpected deaths, songs in the night and the participation of Sol, known as the witch of the marshes, will increase the tension of this exciting thriller set in an inhospitable territory. Because in the swamps of the Ter nothing and no one are what they seem.
Marismas is a different thriller, the result of the common adventure of a mother and son who, somewhat by chance, decided to write, with four hands and two heads, a fast-paced detective and mystery novel. This work is a gift for an audience eager for strong emotions and original stories, in which the twists surprise and the rhythm is established from the moment the case begins and the police investigation progresses. The narrative tension never falters. The authors have managed to weave together an addictive plot that grows in intrigue with changes as unpredictable as they are frequent. And this novel has all the elements to make leaving its pages an impossible task and leave us wanting more.
The strong complicity between both authors, essential in a shared writing process, has resulted in a balanced crime novel with its own voice. «Writing like this is much easier than it might seem. The book is split 50/50 and we both gave our opinions on what each of us had written,” says author Bea Roger. “We had a very clear roadmap, but when you immersed yourself in the story and started writing, many new ideas occurred to you,” explains author Luiso Soldevila. This creative wealth also shines through in the construction of the plot and the development of the story.
«I hear her call him and tell him to wait for her. Poor stupid girl. Before I sneak away, I look back at the window. The curtain moves. But the shadow is no longer there.
From the outset, readers will be drawn to a first-person narrator, whose identity is unknown but who manifests as a disturbed mind. Then, the plot of the girl’s disappearance will advance with the classic third-party narrator who focuses his attention on the true protagonist, the detective Nico Ros, a man around whom the entire action revolves and whose portrait moves away from the typical difficult investigator, lonely and tormented by his problems. Quite the opposite.
His is a noble character who is complemented by a universe of secondary characters full of particularities, some of them united to him by a common tragedy. “They are Nico’s accompaniment, but each one on their own puts a differentiating point in the novel,” says Bea Roger. “The story pivots around him, but when you become familiar with other characters, you realize that they are crucial for Marismas,” adds Luiso Soldevilla. Readers will want to know more about them because of the interest they all arouse since their first appearance.
Along with the characters that make up the peculiar Marismas clan, another determining element is the location of the events and each of the settings located in the town of Llafranc, on the Costa Brava, and in the marshes of the Ter River. In that sense, the authors manage to provide that aura of mystery and unease to the narrative so necessary to build the criminal atmosphere.
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/marismas
