Crime is alive and well in the Spanish beachside resort town Estrella del Mar, and so are the residents- most of them anyway. A quintuple arson murder shocks the transplant residents, despite their accustomedness to gambling, drug dealing, prostitution, robbery, and even rape. Along the Costa del Sol, most towns are virtually crime-free, governed and policed by the expatriates- seemingly having expelled the Spanish from their own coast. However, compared to the tranquilized, zombie-like residents of the rest of the Costa del Sol, the residents of Estrella del Mar are lively, athletic, cultured, and exciting.
When Frank Prentice inexplicably confesses to the quintuple murder, his brother, Charles Prentice, goes to Estrella del Mar to investigate, entering a world he does not understand. Is crime a necessary part of a thriving society? If pain is often an impetus for positive change in an individual, is not crime an impetus for positive change in a society? It certainly works for the residents of Estrella del Mar; crime, cocaine, heroin, and LSD keep the residents very lively.
When I was 18 years old, the summer after I graduated high school, my parents gave me a graduation gift of spending a month in Alicante, Spain on the Costa del Sol. While I was there, a good friend of mine was robbed at knifepoint of her purse, watch, and jewelry by a gypsy. The rest of us were much more vigilant after that. Living on the suncoast of Florida, I have catered literally to rich, Northern transplants. Filed under Journals.
I had read a dozen or so of the novels by that point already, and I am currently reading the 97th and 98th book concurrently. So far, I have been shocked, amazed, horrified, frightened, sickened, delighted, nauseated, brought to tears, brought to tears from laughter, and most importantly educated. I can only imagine what the next or so books will do. I am not reading the novels in any particular order- in the book itself they are arranged chronologically.
I mentioned that I am reading two books concurrently- I often do this by reading one words on paper book when I have the time, and listening to audio books while driving in the car or working around the house. The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my reading and to express myself about what these books have taught me.
