A review by thebooktrail88
Village of the Lost Girls by Agustín Martínez

3.0

Visit the locations in the novel

Village of the Lost Girls, Agustin Martinez. Set in the fictional village of Monteperdido in the Pyrenees, this is a police procedural with a difference. The disappearance of two young girls is not going to be an easy topic to read about but it makes for a compelling tale. Even more so, when one of them returns after many years ‘missing’.

Monteperdido is the remote and rural setting. Not your usual setting for a crime novel and police procedural but this made it all the more compelling. It gives a sense of loss to the novel, a sense of the impossibility of finding the other girl in such a vast landscape. But it also shows the miracle return of the other girl. She seems to have appeared from nowhere.

Inspector Sara Campos comes to Monteperdido and together with her boss Santiago, starts to investigate the disappearance and the search . Local people are in two minds about whether this is a good thing – opening up a can of worms. This case seems odd to them. One girl still missing and the other an enigma. Lucia’s father is a lone and emotional figure trying to grab on to any chance there is of getting his daughter back.

He is not the only troubled figure however as there is added tension with Sara. As leader of the investigation, she has to remain impartial, but she finds out that the case is rather close to home. She begins to fall apart and it’s an interesting story line. Will she manage to keep going or will the valley swallow her up too?

I think this might have been more of a straight forward crime novel but the location takes it to another level. The sense of space, remoteness, claustrophobia and the vast void which makes up the setting create a fascinating background which soon becomes a character in itself.

The novel was good but it could have done with sharper, shorter chapters. Translation was excellent though and it read well overall. It was definitely the location which made this stand out for me.