The Café Moran is full. Six tables occupied by the usual kind of people who haunt such places. Antonia scopes them rapidly as she attempts to catch her breath before entering. Three couples acting like they’re listening to one another while checking their Instagram accounts, two hipsters pretending to write novels on their MacBooks, and a psychopathic killer. The last is the easiest to identify: he is the only one holding a book, not an electronic device.
What pisses Jon off about kidnappings is when he’s the one being kidnapped. You can’t walk down the street these days without someone bundling you into a van with a bag over your head, thinks Jon.
Fair Warning, there are spoilerish items in the following review if you have not yet read the first two books in the series.
It all began with Red Queen, the first book in this trilogy, named for a transnational police organization dedicated to solving the most serious, and most challenging crimes. (As with Alice in Wonderland there are games to be played, riddles to be solved) Special people (male and female) have been recruited, nation by nation, to run point on investigations. These folks have intellectual superpowers that have been enhanced by torturous training. Antonia Scott is Spain’s Red Queen. Jon Gutiérrez, late of the Bilbao PD, is her number two. Think Holmes/Watson or Don Quixote/Sancho Panza. He is there to keep her on some sort of even keel. She can get overwhelmed sometimes, and needs her special red pills to get right. Jon is trained on when to act on that need.
Hovik Keuchkerian as Jon Gutiérrez and Vicky Luengo as Antonia Scott in a still from Red Queen – image from The Hindu
Their first case set the pair to track the who-and-why when a criminal murdered a child of the ultra-rich and kidnapped another. Book #2, Black Wolf, pits Antonia against a Karla-level assassin, engaged with the Russian mafia. Book #3, White King, brings the mysterious mastermind, Mr. White, into the frame.
Please do not bother trying to read White King without ripping through the first two. It would only hurt your brain. If you have not read those two, stop right here, take care of that and then come back. Ok? Cool. So, you know that the Black Wolf offered the ending cliffhanger of Jon being kidnapped by dark forces.
Juan Gómez-Jurado – image from Zenda
As with the first book, the baddies here, for the most part, are presented as cut-out villains. Black Wolf offered the most thoughtful how-they-became-this-way look at the opposition. But you do not read these books for the deep character portraits. You read them because trying to figure out the puzzles, riddles, and mysteries parallels the rush of the repeating sequence of threat-race-resolve-release that keeps the blood pumping.
…when you think about the genre of thriller you have to have three things, social danger, physical danger for your main characters and you have to have a clock around you… – from the FLMADRID23 interview
And here we are back again. In White King, Antonia and Jon are given ridiculously short times in which to solve several cold-case crimes. Or else what? Something reeeeaaaalllly bad will happen. Tick tock.
There is not a lot going on inside the characters in these books other than concern for those close to them. All the action is on the outside, including the manifestation of Antonia’s thought processes, aside from her occasional encounters with the metaphorical monkeys that inhabit her head. Flashbacks to violent episodes from the history of Mentor and Red Queen training are interspersed with the core plot progression. They offer a clear image of one of the characters, without really going much past the basics. We get early on what is going on there, and repetition does not add a lot.
Supporting cast members offer a few surprises, as their presence in this book is enhanced and their significance in the series events is revealed, with a few walk-ons marching across the pages as needed.
Sometimes it can be a bit tough to swallow Antonia’s ability to predict events. But I guess if you give your character superpowers that sort of short-cut is to be expected. Jurado continues peppering the story with words from diverse cultures. This is a fun element.
Dharmaniṣṭhuya – In Kannada, a Dravidic language spoken by forty-four million people in India, the relief of the downhill slope. The sensation an exhausted walker has when they come to a downward stretch of the path.
Mamihlapinatapai, thinks Antonia. In Yaghan, a language spoken by a nomadic people in Tierra del Fuego, the beached eye. A look people exchange when they’re waiting for others to start something they all want but none dares initiate.
There is a persistent, but light touch of humor throughout all three books. Not LOL material, but smirk or smile-worthy for sure. Also, be prepared for some pretty nifty twists. Don’t worry. I won’t tell. But you should be pleased by them. The individual mysteries exist under the arch of a larger, all-encompassing mystery. Jurado looks to tie up the loose ends, mysteries and miseries from the entire series, so you can look forward to some satisfaction there. The pace of White King is relentless. While it seems unlikely there will be more books in the series, given that it has been over five years since this one was published in Spain, but the possibility has been left open, if he ever gets the urge.
Will the Queen take the King? Your move.
Many of us sense there’s something wrong with reality, with everything around us. With the system, other people, ourselves. Yet life bribes us, it buys our silence with the gift of sleep. She, on the other hand, doesn’t forget, can’t forget.
Review posted – 4/11/25
Publication date (USA) – 3/11/25
First published (Spain) – 10/24/19
I received an ARE of White King from Minotaur in return for a fair review, and agreeing to disable that device. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.
This review is cross-posted on Goodreads. Stop by and say Hi!
=======================================EXTRA STUFF
Links to Gomez-Jurado’s personal, FB, and Twitter pages
Profile – from Wikipedia
Juan Gómez-Jurado (born 16 December 1977) is a Spanish journalist and author. He is a columnist in “La Voz de Galicia” and “ABC”, distributed in Spain, and he participates in multiple radio and TV programs. His books have been translated into 42 languages and he is one of the most successful living Spanish authors…
Interviews
—– Juan Gómez-Jurado on his Antonia Scott thrillers: ‘There are ideas within ideas’ by Mini Anthikad Chhibber
—–FLMADRID23Publishers Weekly en Espanol | Juan Gomez-Jurado – really in English – video – 20:37
—–Hindustan Times – Interview: Juan Gomez-Jurado, author, Red Queen by Arunima Mazumdar
My reviews of Gomez-Jurado’s prior books in the series
—–2024 – Black Wolf – Antonia Scott #2
—–2023 – Red Queen – Antonia Scott #1
Items of Interest
—–Google Play Books – preview – audio – 16:13
—–Wiki – Karla – an assassin in the John Le Carre George Smiley series
Coot's Reviews 