Inspector Alvarez is on the case when the body of a retired Bolivian diplomat is found floating in a swimming pool. As he searches for evidence of foul play, Alvarez learns how many enemies the dead man had--causing Alvarez to begin to wonder if he will be the next victim.
He found it, dialled. ‘Have you found her?’ was Ogden’s immediate response. ‘I’m sorry, señor, no, I have not.’ ‘Something terrible’s happened to her.’ ‘You do not think she might have wished to disappear?’ ‘For God’s sake, why would she do such a thing?’ ‘There could be more than one reason.’ ‘I...
The tourist tsunami had not wreaked its havoc. No unsightly huddle of flats and houses was in sight. He rounded the spur and saw the body. The telephone call had not been a hoax. As he approached it, he tried and failed to overcome the harsh reminder that to live was to die, sometimes violently. ...
On arrival at Sants, the more westerly of Barcelona’s stations, he inquired when the next train for Figueras left, and from which station, and was told that the Talgo would be departing from there in twenty minutes. He enjoyed train travel. One didn’t take off and land, so...
Alvarez looked across the consulting room. ‘She was poisoned?’ ‘I’m sure the answer’s yes, but obviously no one will know for certain until after the post mortem.’ ‘Do you think it was a llargsomi?’ The doctor began to tap the desk with his fingers. ‘I doubt it. I am remembering your original des...
He sported a small, tightly clipped moustache and constantly groomed it with the tips of his fingers. He wore unusually formal clothes even in the height of the summer and his manners—when he was dealing with someone his equal or superior—were inclined to be unctuous rather than very polite. &nbs...
‘That damnable gap between intellectual intention and artistic execution.’ Self-honest to a degree—except where her emotions were involved—she could always see how far short of her aims she had fallen because, however successful in a commercial sense, she was not brushed with genius. ...
‘I’m very sorry,’ Alvarez replied humbly. ‘The meal is probably ruined.’ ‘Never, with you doing the cooking.’ ‘Only a man could say something so foolish.’ But the implied compliment was sufficient to prevent any further complaints. She returned into the kitchen. Alvarez sat at the dining-table, p...
‘The Vespa’s an interesting little puzzle. There are no hard scrapes, no smears of foreign paint, as there normally are when two vehicles collide; the damage to the front mudguard and left-hand foot rest and the impacted earth are consistent with the Vespa sliding along the road, off on to the ve...
But by midday few clouds were left and these, drifting in front of a light westerly wind, cast no more than temporary shadows on the land below. The restaurant was sited dramatically, poised a hundred and fifty metres above the rock-strewn sea with its balcony stretching o...
Salas was satisfied the case was open and shut, so why couldn’t he accept that? Yet here he was, on a day of rest, trying to decide whether or not to motor over to Magalluf to talk to the Braddons. What if there had been a row between them and Roig? It sounded as if Roig had been a man with whom ...
‘To what effect?’ Salas asked. ‘She admits she had an affair with Señor Picare, however unlikely.’ ‘I am surprised you consider any relationship unlikely.’ ‘She is not beautiful and he usually chose those who were more obviously attractive. I think it’s the señora’s qualities which attracted him....
High and elaborate wrought-iron gates, electrically operated, hung from pillars of faced stone; set into the right-hand pillar was a speaker unit, below which was a notice in English, French, and Spanish, asking callers to press the red button; fixed to a nearby olive tree was a small, all-weathe...
It no longer made sense to consider Ashton had had any part in the drug trade. Then Kerr could not have learned this and blackmailed him over the fact. Yet if the money Ashton had drawn from the bank had not followed blackmail, for what possible reason would he have given it to Kerr? Was it coinc...