‘Bitter almonds’

Werdi Mayıs 03, 2022

Spanish Eye contains 22 cases from Leon Cazador, half-English, half-Spanish private eye. Its release date is 29 November, from Crooked Cat Publishing.

Most of these cases are based on true events… The short story ‘Bitter Almonds’ was first published in magazine format in 2005: here is a very brief excerpt:

Bitter Almonds

“He needs his belief in human nature to be restored.”

“You know, Leon,” Arturo Martinez said three weeks ago, “even with the water shortage, it looks like my crop’s going to be all right.”

I thought he was luckier than many fellow almond growers further north, like Xixona, for example, where there were real worries about desertification of the soil.

He was proud of his hectares of almond trees that he’d nurtured since inheriting them from his father twenty years before.

Arturo was a man of the earth in every sense. Not for him the trappings of modern wealth. I sometimes berated him over his wife, Carmen, using an old top-loader washtub and mangle. “She isn’t getting any younger,” I said, though I’m sure she wouldn’t thank me for saying so. “Surely you can afford to buy her a new appliance and save her all that drudgery!”

Well, I said it was brief…

From time to time news reports echo the Cazador tales, and this is but one of them, from the Costa Blanca News of August 23, 2013:

Sadly, forest fires are an annual occurrence in Spain, sometimes caused by carelessness, not arsonists. Carelessness can be criminal, however. To learn how this pertains to Arturo Martinez, and what happens, please read the book…