The Ignorance of Blood [Hardcover]

In The Ignorance of Blood, the final book of Robert Wilson’s sterling Javier Falcón sequence, his doughty police inspector is in the middle of a battle between Russian mafia groups. He has made a promise to the inhabitants of Seville that he will track down those behind a bombing which has wrecked a pre-school building, and killed many -- including children. Falcón is stumped until a connection with the Russian mob becomes apparent after a fatal car accident. But things are complicated for Falcón when his closest friend, the Moroccan Yacoub Diori (who spies for the Spanish intelligence agency), is blackmailed by a group of terrorists into whose organisation he has inveigled himself.

In The Ignorance of Blood, Robert Wilson demonstrates once again his effortless skill at orchestrating a variety of elements: vividly drawn, fully-rounded characters, complex and intriguing plotting (with endemic corruption and the impact of the past on the present recurring themes), and – perhaps most piquant of all – a strong and atmospheric sense of place; few novels have conjured up the sultry city of Seville with the skill on offer here.

This, regrettably, is the final book in Wilson’s much-admired Falcón quartet will inspire a duality of feeling in readers who have keenly followed the sequence: satisfaction that Wilson has written such a satisfyingfinis to the quartet, and regret that this is to be our last time in the company of the intriguing Javier Falcón. But we can at least anticipate further achievements from the highly talented Robert Wilson. --Barry Forshaw

‘Take the journey to Seville with Inspector Javier as your compelling yet troubled guide – and experience Robert Wilson’s potent blends of beauty and terror, sex and death, and prose and plot’ Harlan Coben

Praise for ‘The Hidden Assassins’:

‘Wilson drives his narrative expertly… a riveting read, filled with incident and unexpected twists’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Wilson, as always, delivers’ The Times

‘Few writers mix tension and action as effectively as Robert Wilson… his carefully drawn charcters inhabit unusual, intriguing and psychologically intricate plots that never leave the realm of possibility…excellent’ Guardian

‘If you only read one thriller this year, make it this one… a thrilling and memorable read’ Literary Review

‘Wilson has combined an utterly gripping and detailed police investigation with a sensitive and compelling examination of the impact of history on modern Spanish life. One of the year’s best thrillers’ Irish Independent

`A well-engineered plot and dense, chewy prose... skilfully woven together'

`The complex narrative contains several set-pieces of breathless brutality and twists and turns like a bull tormented by picadors. This is crime-writing for grown-ups'

`The last in the fine quartet... a fitting end to an absorbing, well-written series'

`Wilson writes so well... brave, humane, intuitive'

'A big, serious thriller with echoes of Le Carre... Wilson writes with an impressive sense of inside knowledge, both about contemporary Seville and about its criminal underbelly'

`[Wilson] has given the twists and turns of a thriller a pleasingly idiosyncratic national context, as the crooks on the Costa del Sol invade Seville'

`A writer of sharp psychological insights... the final book in Wilson's much-acclaimed Javier Falcon quartet... such is the skill with which he has drawn us into Javier Falcon's world that he is leaving us hungry for more forays into Seville's dangerous underworld'

The final psychological thriller featuring Javier Falcon, the tortured detective from ‘The Hidden Assassins’ and ‘The Blind Man of Seville.’

In the wake of a terrorist attack on Seville, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon is determined to fulfil his promise to its citizens - that he'll bring the real perpetrators to justice. The violent death of a gangster provides evidence implicating the Russian mafia in the outrage but pitches Falcon into the heart of a turf war over prostitution and drugs.

Now the target of vicious hoods, Falcon finds those closest to him are also coming under intolerable pressure. His best friend, who's spying for the Spanish government, reveals he is being blackmailed by Islamist extremists, and Falcon's own lover suffers a mother's worst nightmare.

Confronted by such fanaticism and brutality, Falcon realizes that only the most ruthless retaliation will work.

But there is a terrible price to pay…

Robert Wilson was born in 1957. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping and advertising in London and trading in West Africa. He is married and divides his time between England, Spain and Portugal.