A small window of redemption for a cop, sloppily busted for framing a criminal. Drawn into a shadowy organisation who attempt to keep the worst of the world out of view and preferably unable to continue the worst crimes, he must deal with an enigmatic boss and a seemingly uncooperative holmesian intellect.

I found this story, centred around the 'Red Queen' - Antonia Scott, utterly compelling and exciting to read. Scott is troubled and flawed but an absolute genius who is determined to solve every case handed to her. With the help of her working partner Jon Gutierrez who quickly understands Scott's needs and frailties they become a duo to be reckoned with. I loved reading this fast-paced thriller. I recommend it to everyone, I'm going to read the next book in the series (Black Wolf) very soon and look forward to the third instalment.

Well I’m a little bit speechless. What an absolutely brilliant book from the beginning, right up to the end!

I like sneaking in as many translated works into my yearly reads as possible. I am happier when it is an actual book rather than the several graphic novels that were once originally produced in different languages.
This story did not feel like a translated work in any form or fashion!
The translator does a great job of maintaining the gritty atmosphere without making the dialogue or narrative style seem choppy, which sometimes happens in books like this.
A police procedural of sorts, we meet a slightly crooked cop (one who bends to ensure that the bad guys are tied up) who has been given one chance to clear his record. It is meant to be a call on a woman living alone and making her come back to the top-secret work she usually does.
Once that first task is managed, the cop ends up being the sidekick for the rest of the investigation as he trails just behind the brains of the operation. His presence attracts unwanted attention, however, and puts the investigation in danger.
The investigation is very hush-hush, as are the deaths that happen. The investigation is meticulous and involves a lot of red tape. I cannot really go into further details than that!
Finally, it does have a couple of fast car chases, pursuits of different kinds, as well as a bit of actual fighting without descending into any overly graphic details that could have accompanied the murders that occurred. This last part did surprise me.
It is a first in a series, and I would want to read more about where the characters end up! I would recommend it to fans of thrillers and police procedurals.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Finally this international best seller series has been translated into English.

Antonia Scott has a very high IQ and a gifted forensic mind. She isn't a police officer or a lawyer, yet she has solved dozens of crimes. After some personal issues and trauma she hasn't left her apartment and refused to continue her work.

Jon Gutierrez is a disgraced, suspended police officer who is about to face charges until he recieves an offer to work on a case. He just needs to convince Antonia to leave her apartment to assist him in the case.

This was a great thriller. With it being a first in a series there is a bit of set up for us to get to know our main characters. I found the case that they are trying to solve really interesting. I loved that we got viewpoints from the main people involved (including the murder) so we could see the case from all perspectives. There is some great character building and twists within this to keep you guessing. I can't wait for book 2 to be translated.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for my ARC in exchange the review.

Really enjoyed this book! Found the main character of Antonia to be very fascinating - I'd definitely be interested in reading more books centered around her. Enjoyed the plot, the characters, the twists, and the mystery; it kept me turning page after page!

Wanted to watch this before the TV show came out because the premise interested me, but I just couldn't gel with the writing style. Didn't engage me like I thought it would considering the subject matter.

Red Queen
by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Translated from the Spanish by Nicolas Caistor

Gah! I wanted this love this so much. A smart literary thriller in translation, it should have been right up my street, but unfortunately I had a hard time with this book. I found it exhausting.

I don't know quiet what to make of the writing. It is very heavy on metaphors which sometimes were funny, but soon turn tiresome with their frequency and lack of light and shade, everything is dialed up to max strength. There are many passages that are probably meant to be philosophical but are really a little cringy eg:

"During her sojourn in the darkness, she came to understand that God and Good and Evil were no more than words of one syllable with a capital letter. And yet she still retained a glimmer of hope of universal harmony"

I mean, what? Maybe a translation issue, but the book is full of this.

I did not engage with any of these characters, no nuance, they resemble cartoon characters, or maybe super hero movie characters. The plot is fast paced and there is so much action, I practically saw the Wham and Bam logos leap out of the page. At times the dialogue became amusing but in a depreciating way, sardonic and sarcastic, maybe a bit childish. It reads like a movie script at times, especially during car chases, fight scenes and explosions.

Perhaps this would work well visually. The high octane pacing, the pyrotechnics and the jaded, grouchy characters and the blood and gore might make for a blockbuster movie but a smart literary thriller it is not.

Publication date: 16th March 2023
Thanks to #netgalley for the eGalley

This book had a promising start and I really enjoyed reading the first half of the book. The plot itself held so much intrigue- a covert group of operatives who are pulled into any case only when it becomes imperative and time is of essence. And their objective is clear cut-get in, solve the case and leave without a trace. No recognition or fame. And at the center of this group is the Red Queen, who is trained to work around a problem and arrive at a solution with a speed that is hitherto thought impossible to humans. Antonia Scott is Spain's Red Queen, but after a tragic incident that left her husband in a coma she abandons the project and confines herself to her apartment leaving it only to visit her husband at the hospital.

John, is a suspended police office who is assigned the impossible task of getting Antonia out of her apartment to examine a crime scene. A young boy is kidnapped, murdered and his body drained of blood. His body is then elaborately placed in his parents' immaculate house, as if he's a character in a well thought out scene. Without much evidence and clues, Jon and Antonia struggle to get moving on this case and when another business tycoon's daughter is abducted, things really blow up. There are multiple forces working against the duo and time is running out for them.

I wasn't really convinced with the motives behind why the abductions and killings occurred and I hope that the next book in the series will provide more explanations. It definitely looks like the books may not be completely stand alone but otherwise I don't like endings where the plot is not satisfyingly resolved. Also the narration kind of seemed clipped and some of the character's actions seemed so out of place in particular situations. Obviously I didn't enjoy reading the last quarter of the book but I still hope to read the next book in the series to get closure.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Antonia Scott, an intelligent individual and elected as Spain's "Red Queen", solving crimes as part of an undercover operation. After a personal trauma, she now lives as a recluse, confined to the walls of her flat and her husbands hospital room. After a high profile murder, Antonia allows herself to be lured back to investigate.

I could see the appeal with this newly translated series. The descriptions, the characterisations, and the twists are all incredible. Unfortunately for me, I feel a lot of the plot got lost in translation, and it left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

Antonia's character and history are fascinating, and I am almost urged to continue the series for this alone. However, I felt the other characters didn't have as much depth to them. They were very overshadowed by the star of the series, in my opinion.

The pacing at the start of the book felt a little slow. However, this quickly picks up, and once the investigation is well underway, it quickly improves. The information and obvious knowledge/research the author has gone into is indepth, and the little twists in the plot throughout definitely made it page turning.

Overall, I can definitely see the appeal with this series, and I have the intrigue to continue, but it wasn't a new favourite for me.

This book is going to be very famous for a long time.

Sharp, incisive crime meets realistic struggles for a sometimes witty read.

Juan Gomez-Jurado writes a terrifically entertaining Spanish thriller, translated by Nick Caistor, the first of a trilogy featuring the traumatised mother, Antonia Scott, haunting the hospital room of her husband Marcos, burdened by guilt, barely holding on to her sanity with her sacred daily 3 minutes dwelling on suicide. Scott is no ordinary woman, daughter of a British diplomat and Spanish mother, she is Spain's trained Red Queen, a genius with a phenomenal forensic intellect that can operate at speeds no-one can emulate, an integral part of a below the radar organisation, solving crimes. However, for 3 years she has been unable to fulfil her role, despite numerous efforts by her Mentor to coax her back. She is living in a apartment she refuses to leave and which is barely furnished, receiving food from the residents, and she cannot bear being touched

When a teenage son is found murdered, dramatically posed in a supposedly highly secure, wealthy family home, drained of blood, a burly, gay, disgraced Bilbao detective, Jon Guiterrez, still living at home with his beloved elderly mother, is sent to Madrid, tasked with persuading Scott to return. He has been caught red handed in police corruption, a video going viral on the internet, leaving him suspended, and facing the prospect of criminal charges. However, he did this act with the best of intentions, only for it to backfire in spectacular fashion, he is offered the extraordinary possibility of salvaging his career by Mentor. There are initial issues, but eventually Scott and Jon become buddies, working well together, with it all ending up in jeopardy when a journalist looking for a scoop targets Jon. Very little is as it appears when Carla Ortiz, the daughter of a billionaire, is abducted with a death sentence hanging over her head too.

There is a wit and humour in the creation of this charismatic odd couple crime solving duo, putting their lives on the line, facing seeming impossible challenges to identify a macabre and sinister killer(s), and only Scott is capable of making the necessary connections. A highlight for me was the character of Carla, who proves to be far more than just a rich man's over protected daughter. This is a magnetic and suspenseful thriller, full of twists, that is hard to put down, which I have no doubt will appeal to many crime and mystery readers, and I understand it will be a Amazon TV series this year. I am looking forward with great anticipation to the next book in the trilogy! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I LOVED this story. It’s so far up my street it has a resident’s parking permit.
It’s the most delicious cocktail of Stieg Larsson (think a slightly warmer version of Lisbeth Salander), Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson, with a generous side helping of Limitless.
It’s action all the way in this psychological thriller, as Antonia (the brains), reluctantly teams up with Jon (a good cop whose career and reputation have just hit the crapper), to solve a murder and track down the culprit before another abductee throws a treble six.
I’ll definitely be picking up the next in this series. New favourite author alert. ⚠️
Massive thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC. The Red Queen publishes in the U.K. on 16 March.

Red Queen follows Antonia Scott, an intelligent individual who lives under the radar and despite not being the police, a lawyer or part of any other public body, has solved many crimes during her time. After a personal trauma which has confined Antonia to the walls of her flat, she is lured back into business to help catch the person behind a high profile murder.

This wasn’t my favourite thriller book but it was decent. Despite this, it’s been hugely popular in Spain and is a well sought after series.

So, the good bits… the translation was seamless and the writing style was easy to follow. I thought that generally, tension was built well and the overall book was gripping.

Having said that, I felt towards the end I lost interest slightly rather than being totally hooked. This book is very much all about the plot and I am more of a character driven reader. However, there were some good discoveries and plenty of twists and turns.

I believe this is being adapted to screen and it’s definitely a series I’ll be keeping a look out for.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC.

“Antonia Scott allows herself to think of suicide no more than three minutes a day.”

What an opening line to a book! In the first of a trilogy this gripping saga follows Antonia Scott, one of the most gifted and problematic females I’ve ever read about. It’s a thrilling tale which will have you gripped until the very end. If thrillers/ crime novels are your thing then this is the saga for you!!

Red Queen – the exciting first novel in the trilogy by Juan Gomez-Jurado – was my first taste of Spanish crime fiction, and I could not have asked for anything better!

The Red Queen project is a sophisticated, top-secret group that works in the shadowy fringes to solve sensitive, serious, high-profile crimes in utmost secrecy, and Antonia Scott, with a singular mind that is capable of unimaginable feats of memory and deduction, is the Red Queen. Her handler, the one who recruited her, put her through brutal training to hone her naturally extraordinary mind, and is responsible for her continued usefulness, is a ruthless, resourceful man known only as the Mentor. After years of success, the project suffered a big setback three years ago when Scott lost the will to work following a personal tragedy for which she blamed her job, and the Mentor's efforts to get her back have been in vain so far. But a horrifying new case comes up, and the Mentor entices Inspector Jon Gutierrez of Bilbao Police – under suspension and facing imprisonment for a well-intended misdeed – with the possibility of a clean chit if he succeeds in getting Scott out of her self-imposed isolation, as the Mentor is confident that she will keep working once she starts with the case.

Jon manages to drive Scott to an ultra-rich mansion in Madrid where the dead body of a teenage boy, who was kidnapped six days before, is staged in a ritualistic posture – the work of a master killer who is bound to kill more. The boy’s mother is the chairman of the largest bank in Europe and the appalling crime needs to be investigated in secret for obvious reasons. Scott, after working for some time, suddenly finds herself unable to continue and runs away, leaving the investigation in a lurch. But another kidnapping occurs soon, this time of the daughter of a textile magnate, and Scott’s involvement would make the difference between life and death for the woman. Then starts the race to catch the killer before he claims another victim, which is made difficult by all the secrecy, and which demands all of Scott’s enormous brainpower and the project’s resources. As the pair closes in on the killer though, things get so complicated that the motive behind the crimes turns out to be something that not even Scott’s special mind could comprehend, and success would come at a terrible personal cost.

Translated seamlessly into English by Nick Caistor, Red Queen, with its gripping plot and the fantastic cast of characters, grabs the reader from the first sentence and does not let go until the very end. Antonia Scott’s brilliant mind is amazing to watch in action, and her quirks are amusingly unpredictable; she also has an underlying vulnerability that makes one feel protective of her. Jon Gutierrez is intelligent, tenacious, and utterly dependable; with a dry sense of humour and an impulsiveness that makes him appealing. The suspenseful ending that follows the heart-stopping climax is sure to hook the readers for the rest of the trilogy. The little doses of history and the quirky words from little-known languages that season the story act as breathers amidst the rush of the nerve-racking chase. There are a few negatives, like some actions of Scott that do not befit her supreme intellect and the killer’s actions that seem unwarranted for the stated motive, but they did not diminish in any way the thrill I had reading Red Queen, and I am eager for the next instalment!

My gratitude to Pan Macmillan for the DRC of Red Queen in exchange for my honest review through NetGalley.

Antonia Scott has special skills that help her to solve the toughest crimes in Spain but that has stopped as she has not come out of her apartment in Madrid and refuses to have visitors. Disgraced cop Jon Gutierrez has been sent to persuade her to work again but so far everyone else who has tried has failed. This thriller is high-paced and it's great to read one set in Spain. For me, the story lost pace in the second half but the characters are strong and keep one's interest. I'm glad to hear it's part of a trilogy so they will be back. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Red Queen' by Juan Gómez-Juardo which publishes in March 2023.

I wish I could say I adored this book. The concept sounded fascinating and addicting which is odd for me seeing as thrillers and I dont combine. But sadly, this fell flat on me. Is it due to the fact that I am always underwhelmed by thrillers or is it because I just didn't connect to the story? I don't know. However, there's plenty of people who may adore this book so don't let me put you off.

Antonia Scott has solved dozens of crimes but she doesn't work for law enforcement and very few people know who she is, After an incident leaves her holed up in her attic apartment in Madrid she is once again called into the Fray; her special skill set is once again needed and this time she has a new partner.

This is a high octane thriller; Antonia's intellect and ability to see all sides of the problem was gripping and I finished the book in one sitting, A fast paced and twisty thriller, I can't wait to read more!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

This was an enjoyable read that had an engaging wirting style and well developed characters especially our protagonist Antonia who I found to be believable in the role she played. I was really enjoying this book, but the end fell kinda flat for me, it was almost like the character that had been the protagonist in the first half had been replaced in the second half.
I atill enjoyed it but would have wanted a bit more from the last half of the book