Bad coffee, bureaucracy, pink Harleys and murder.

 

Not neutral Spanish Edition.

Blind goddess (La diosa ciega) by Anne Holt.

This was an uneven experience. 

The translation felt awkward. A very subjective aspect is that I don’t like localized Spanish (the edition was in Spanish from Spain, hostias!), that is totally on me, but I found context inaccuracies and some debatable choices, nothing too bad, but it can muddy the reading. Other reviewers shared comments about translation issues in other editions and languages, so it could be a general editing issue. Also a couple of minor details (race and class comments) that could be attributed to the date it was written, not like we would expect nowadays.

About the plot, it has its ups and downs. I am sure I will forget the plot in 3 days (better write fast here!): murder, drugs, police, more murder, generic shady characters… nothing out of the ordinary. It is a procedural noir, so lots of pushing papers, running to the judge, grab that bulky typewriter! It wasn’t a fast reading for me, at times it was too much procedure, a bit forcing its own mystery, some not very convincing connections made by the police and questionable plot points. The book´s strength relies on the characters: they glue very well all that police and paper-pushing heavy-lifting, their interactions were very well drawn, work and personal aspects balanced with ease.

Overall, it was an entertaining read.