Sign of the Cross: A Spike Sanguinetti Novel
Lawyer and reluctant sleuth Spike Sanguinetti returns (following Shadow of the Rock, 2012) in this second installment in Mogford’s captivating series set on the island of Gibraltar. This time Spike leaves the Rock with his aging father to attend the funerals of his aunt and uncle in Malta. The violent death of his relatives—his uncle apparently stabbed his wife before turning the knife on himself—doesn’t sit well with Spike, who decides to nose around a little before doing his job of executor of the wills. His nosing prompts a reunion with former girlfriend Zahra, who is working as a translator in Malta’s immigration camps, but just as suddenly as Zahra reappears in Spike’s life, she disappears again. Setting is clearly Mogford’s trump card, and he does for Malta in this episode what he did for both Gibraltar and Tangier in the first book, contrasting old and new worlds while forcing his characters to walk the delicate fault line between the two. Spike Sanguinetti is a younger, sexier, unmarried but still sensitive version of Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti, and his adventures may eventually attract a Leon-size audience. --Bill Ott