Easy prey, Vultures: predators with dark designs

October 2016, in Spain. Young Irina, 15, has everything going for her: beauty, academic success, friends. However, the young girl seems tormented. When a few months later, her parents found her dead in her bed, the theory of suicide was not in doubt for the authorities. But Inspector Tabares and her deputy Sotillo do not see it that way and manage to keep the investigation open for a few days before it is closed. Time for the tandem to get their hands on the victim's tablet which reveals naked photos of her and a relationship with a professional photographer specializing in erotic photos. A discovery marking the start of a chilling investigation where ignominy reigns supreme.

Miguelanxo Prado enchanted us with the fantasy and dreaminess of Ardalen, or the thriller imbued with ancestral mythology The Stolen Triskel. With his series of independent thrillers Easy Prey, set against a backdrop of social criticism, the Spaniard plunges the reader into the dark depths of the human soul. Miguelanxo Prado keeps us in suspense while distilling the failings of our society.

In a first investigation, published in 2017, he spoke of the malpractices of the banking world crushing ordinary people. In this second part, he goes a step further in what the lure of gain can lead to despicable acts. With Vautours, the two inspectors navigate the murky waters of child crime with a keen sense of justice.

Meticulous and stubborn, they delve where you least expect them, not hesitating to overcome the obstacles of the hierarchy, to take the reader on an investigation with many twists and turns. Their investigations reveal how social networks or psychotropic drugs (used to abuse future victims such as scopolamine) are diverted to create an entire arsenal at the service of predators.

Without spoiling the fluidity of the story, the author brilliantly stages flashbacks in time through which the reader plunges behind the scenes of the crime. He witnesses its development, the quickly vanished scruples of those who commit it, Irina's solitude and her imprisonment in the hell of vice. Miguelanxo Prado spares no detail to illustrate greed and Machiavellianism.

The author, however, offers a few pages of breathing space by fleshing out the friendly relationship between the two inspectors. When they allow themselves a trip at sea, lighter discussions or a visit to a planetarium, the reader also catches his breath in this race against crime, relayed and supported by a virtuoso line. Charcoal and expressive, it masterfully reveals abjection in all its splendor.

Proies faciles, take 2, Vautours, Miguelanxo Prado, Rue de sèvres, 80 pages, 20 euros.