Published a few years ago in Spain, The Silence of the White City has become a best-seller, selling over 200,000 copies. Released in France in September by Fleuve Éditions, Nice Premium invites you to discover Vitoria, the autonomous capital of the Basque Country and a mysterious city where a killer lurks.
In the Santa Maria Cathedral in Vitoria, two bodies are found staged in a macabre tableau: a man and a woman in their twenties, naked, touching each other’s cheek in a gesture of tenderness and love; yet the two victims did not know each other. Their death was caused by bees introduced into their mouths.
These crimes remind the entire city of a previous series, twenty years earlier. A series for which the perpetrator is in prison and is due to be released soon… Are these new murders proof that the imprisoned culprit is not the right one? Or is it a copycat wanting to pay homage?
These are the leads that Inspector Unai López de Ayala, a local nicknamed Kraken, will have to explore.
The plot is constructed around a dual narrative arc: one in the present day where we follow a duo of investigators comprising Inspectors Unai López de Ayala and Estíbaliz Ruiz de Gauna; the other in 1969, following Dr. Álvaro Urbina. This technique gives strength to the novel and perfectly complements the current investigation centered around the murders. The reader is immediately captivated, intrigued. We get carried away to the final resolution, logical, inexorable, and yet no one saw it coming.
But The Silence of the White City is more than a gripping and intelligent thriller; it is the author’s homage to her hometown of Vitoria. Indeed, the plot is completely linked to the city through its architecture, legends, myths, and symbols. We thus discover a rich history several centuries old, and the magnificent buildings, statues, and parks that punctuate it. We stroll with Unai and Esti, we run there, we smell the old stones, we fear, we get lost.
The novel is also full of emotions with Unai’s family, his grandfather and his brother Germán, his partner Esti. The characters are numerous and interesting like Alba, and the mysterious twins Ignacio and Tasio…
The Silence of the White City written by Eva García Sáenz de Urturi is a true success, a sophisticated and thrilling thriller that will take you to discover a city with a fascinating backdrop.
