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Inspector Salgado Books In Order

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Publication Order of Inspector Salgado Books

The Summer of Dead Toys (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Good Suicides (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon

Inspector Hector Salgado is the main character in an investigative novel series written by Spain’s bestseller author Antonio Hill. He is a person with a complicated past, a tendency to violence and a love of cinema. The first novel in Inspector Salgado series by Antonio Hill is The Summer of Dead Toys published in 2011. The second book The Good Suicides (2012) while the third novel Los Amantes de Hiroshima was published in 2014.

The Summer of Dead Toys

The first series installment is a Random House publication debuted in the market in June 2013. The story introduces Inspector Hector Salgado who is caught up in a tough time. He on leave, seeking therapy to cool down from his breakdown after he is almost beating someone to death after discovering the crime that the person had committed and somehow, his career hangs in the balance. Furthermore, he is also dealing with his ex-wife who deserted him for another man and also trying to seal the gap between him and his son.

When a young man named Marc takes a fall from a window, everyone at first believes that it was just a tragic accident or suicide. However, the boy’s mother doubts what everyone thinks of what killed her son and so Hector ventures into looking into the matter personally.

His detailed investigation reveals that there was a foul play at the night when Marc died. Marc, two best friends, joined him and spent time that fateful evening and they both appear to be hiding some information. Hector teams up with a young girl whom he becomes fond of, the same girl is also going through groundbreaking life changes, and so the two are able to sympathize with each other. Furthermore, Hector has got few good friends that are assisting him from being accused of things that he did not commit and also help him stay on the right track.

The sad story that is revealed relating Marc’s family life and his weird pair of friends and their troubled life as well is shocking. The dead boy mother was not around as he was growing up and his father remarried. The second wife he remarried was unable to conceive, and thus they adopted a little girl. As a result, this caused Marc to distance himself far from people.

However, there is something that happened to Marc during a trip to Dublin. Something that made him wish to reconnect with his mother, something that even his friends admit that made him return home completely a different person. After a close examination of Marc blog, it is revealed that he had met a girl in Dublin, and the problem is that the girl is dead. She died at the age of 12 in a mysterious drowning accident. The questions that arise are, Could Marc have remembered something about that long summer in Dublin? What answers do the two friends of Marc know? Moreover, did anyone toss him out the window? Additionally, the background case that has got Hector in hot soup is still ongoing. Hector, his ex-wife, and son are always being threatened, and when things seem to finally getting normal, the worst happens.

Set in Barcelona, Spain during the hot summer, The Summer of Dead Toys is a great start to an excellent and long-running crime series. The author, Antonio Hill keeps the killer’s identity a secret until the climax, also Hector has other issues which are not revealed until the very end and when you ought that everything is going to be all right, the worst happens.

Hector is a complex character. He had some challenges growing up that he tirelessly worked to overcome but comes crashing down on him at the worst possible moment. Through his words, you can evidently see that he still wishes that things could work out for the better with his ex-wife. On the other hand, he is fond of his friends, he is quiet, a good listener and thinking man most of the time.

The Good Suicides

On a mobile phone is a photograph of a tree and hanging from its branches are three bodies of hanged dogs. Imagine the feelings and the thoughts of the business people who came across some stray dogs while out on another exercise in their team- building course. However, who could have possibly taken the photographs of this terrifying scene and why would the photo be sent to one of the staff just moments before she tossed herself in front of a metro train?

Inspector Salgado is shocked, and when he discovers that one more person who attended the same course killed himself and his entire family the previous year, suspicions start building up.

“Never Forget” was the message that accompanied the photographs of the three dogs. Now the question is Never forget what? The dogs? Alternatively, did something else happen that particular weekend? The inspector thinks so, but unfortunately, he finds the team survivors less than welcoming.

The Good Suicides is the second novel by Antonio Hill and the sequel The Summer of Dead Toys in Inspector Salgado series. The previous book provided a haunting image of a long dead girl floating in a water pool and surrounded by toys, and there were two suicides for Inspector Salgado to investigate. However this time, it is the image of the dead dogs that haunts everyone and suicide seem to be the course of these deaths. The author does much more than simply repeating the themes.

The speculation that a tragic event happening during a team building day could bring people together in a pact of silence provides an excellent basis for this tale. In fact, this tragedy and the need for silence affect different characters differently, and the author excellently portrays this. Like the characters, involvement is revealed more hints are dropped as to what might have happened in a classic whodunit manner, and the reader must wait until the truth is surfaced.

Aside from the main story of this novel, there is a secondary storyline that follows the disappearance of Inspector Hector’s wife which happened in the first book in the series. This is also an interesting arc, more so as it gives the readers an opportunity to get to know Agent Leire Castro who was introduced in the first book.

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