Published by Fleuve Éditions at the beginning of the year, Reine Rouge by Juan Gómez-Jurado is touted as the thriller phenomenon of the moment with over 2 million copies sold. Nice-Premium read it for you.
Inspector Jon Gutiérrez is a good cop, with no history, who lives with his mom and enjoys her cooking. But one day, his well-ordered little life derails: for trying to force fate, Jon Gutiérrez is sidelined. More precisely, he is sent on a special mission…
Antonia Scott is a mystery, neither an investigator nor a criminologist; yet she alone has helped solve numerous crimes. But for the past three years, Antonia Scott has been reclusive in her empty apartment. Mentor, her superior, cannot get her to return to service. However, when a sordid crime impacting a very powerful Spanish family is committed, Mentor orders Gutiérrez to convince Antonia to rejoin. The very sensitive investigation is stalling, and only someone like Antonia can solve it.
Without a doubt, Reine Rouge is a devilishly effective thriller, a page-turner led at breakneck speed by two characters who were never meant to meet… besides the cleverly constructed plot, the strength of Reine Rouge lies in its heroes and the way the author makes them instantly endearing to us. Jon Gutiérrez, a human cop, not fat but with “a barrel-shaped chest and two matching arms. Inside, even if it does not show, there are muscles of harrijasotzaile – stone lifters.” Perhaps too human, as he himself says, he is “in a damn mess” and his future within the Bilbao police is largely compromised. Jon is a character the reader immediately takes an interest in; there’s a certain humor sprinkled by Juan Gómez-Jurado when it comes to Jon, which makes the story very enjoyable.
And there’s Antonia. Antonia, a wounded woman, with an exceptional brain but who is no longer capable of anything, or rather doesn’t want to be capable of anything. For other reasons as well, the reader is drawn to her; she is intriguing, distant, and full of secrets. Yet she will trust Jon and go to the scene of a strange crime.
This Spanish thriller is undoubtedly of formidable effectiveness, gripping, cleverly constructed, and paced, Reine Rouge will take you on a Madrilenian journey without regret. We are already delighted at the prospect of knowing that we will find the characters again, at least Antonia (but I can’t imagine the author not bringing back Jon as well) in a new investigation because it will ultimately be a trilogy. The second volume, Louve Noire, is already written and should be released next year by Fleuve Éditions.
