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adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
White King is the third (and final) book in the international bestseller Red Queen series by Juan Gomez-Jurado. Originally published in Spanish in 2020, it is finally available in English. If you enjoy thrillers with great characters, don’t miss this series.
Antonia Scott (half British-half Spanish) is a terrific character, a super-intelligent woman who has experienced a good deal of personal trauma. Antonia is part of the Red Queen project, “created to work behind the scenes to solve the most devious and dangerous crimes.” Jon Guttierez is a Spanish police officer who got in a bit of disgrace, so when he was offered an opportunity to make the problem go away if he worked with Antonia, he jumped at the chance. They are a terrific team. I particularly loved Jon in each of these three books. He’s gay so the author has avoided any of the possible male-female entanglements that so many books include with people who work together so closely. They work on very complex cases assigned to them by a man code named Mentor.
This book picks up exactly where the cliffhanger ending of book two, Black Wolf, left us. (Not going to say what that cliffhanger was, in case you haven’t read Black Wolf yet.)
Antonia and Jon are working against the clock, racing all over Madrid trying to solve multiple cases on a deadline set by an evil antagonist, the titular White King. It was not quite as enjoyable for me as the first two books, probably because of all the bouncing around in time, with flashbacks that were not clearly labeled as such and involved several different characters. While still a very good book, I found myself speeding up the audiobook beyond the speed I usually listen at, which is a sign that something wasn’t quite working for me.
While this could technically be read as a standalone, I think you would be even more confused than I was, so I wouldn’t recommend it as a standalone.
One of the things I really enjoyed about Antonia is her amazing grasp of numerous languages. She was constantly coming with the odd words in lesser-known languages to express/describe a particular situation. Here’s one example: “Dharmanisthuya, 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.”
I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. Scott Brick does his usual fabulous job with the narration.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Murder
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder