Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who died in 2003, wrote 20 crime novels featuring Pepe Carvalho, a self-confessed ‘ex-cop, an ex-Marxist and a gourmet’: think Philip Marlowe relocated to late-20th-century Barcelona. One of the earlier (and tougher) books in the series, Tattoo (translated by Nick Caistor, Serpent’s Tail, £7.99), now makes a welcome first appearance in English. A young man’s faceless corpse is found floating front-down in the sea. The only clue is a tattoo on the back that bears the legend ‘Born To Raise Hell In Hell’. A hairdresser hires Carvalho to investigate. The case mushrooms out into a lethal entanglement with organised crime in Barcelona and Amsterdam. But the truth behind the murder lies nearer to home. Distinctive and abrasive, Tattoo is a good introduction to Montalbán if you haven’t tried him before.
Andrew Taylor’s latest novel is Bleeding Heart Square (Michael Joseph).
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