This is the follow up to Red Queen, which I raved about last year and is now a series on Amazon Prime. The follow up – Black Wolf – isn’t as good although it does return us to the fascinating character of Antonia Scott, a woman with special abilities that have been trained to solve crime. The ending of the first novel set Scott up with a new nemesis, and at the beginning of this second we find her still focused on that directive – but a new case calls her away and she is sent to retrieve Lola Moreno, the pregnant wife of a murdered Russian mafia figure.
Moreno and her whole scenario are not what they appear which is engaging but hardly a surprise. But the whole novel feels like Gomez-Jurado is biding his time – place filling before he gets to the real point which is hinted at again in the novel’s final chapter. Even the title refers to something quite non-central to the narrative.
This is solid storytelling – and a delightful read in the sun between races at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix this weekend. But it is a let down after the first explosive novel. Let’s hope it picks up again in the third instalment.
Welloflostplots 