Second in the Barcelona Nights series, featuring Deputy Inspector Norma Forester.

An engrossing murder mystery set in Barcelona, by turns darkly humorous and poignant, with complex characters navigating social and personal turmoil.

Book blurb

No money, no future – a motive for murder?

The economic crisis has hit Barcelona hard, and a personal crisis might be about to hit Deputy Inspector Norma Forrester’s family.

When a body is found in the grounds of a former grand villa,now a student squat, Norma finds the case uncomfortably close to home. The downturn has turned the city into a breeding ground for crime, or is the motive more personal? Unable to stay away, although this case may represent a conflict of interest, Norma can’t even count on the support of her forensic pathologist husband Octavi, who has more than enough to cope with following a major incident at the city’s Prat Airport. When a face from his past appears, he and Norma are faced with choices and conflicts – just as her focus should be on finding the killer.

With her trademark dark humour, Teresa Solana paints the portrait of a contradictory, vibrant Barcelona, where nothing is ever black and white.

My thoughts

So we have the next episode in the Barcelona Nights series having begun with Black Storms the series continues with Norma and Octavi working on two separate incidents. They were supposed to fly to London for a few days but that had to be abandoned.

Octavi is called in when an aeroplane crashes with very high deaths. It is a difficult and heart rending situation. Specialists in forensics are flying in from across Europe to help with the identification of the bodies. It brings back Dr Cayetana Guerra into Octavi’s life and rekindles memories and much more of two years before when at a conference in Seville!

Norma too has a relationship ongoing that she hopes isn’t getting too serious, it’s not meant to be. She loves Octavi. The relationships between her, Octavi, the family, friends and their respective lovers is at times complicated but adds a great deal of interest, depth and at times humour albeit on the darker side.

The case that Norma picks up is that of a woman, Raquel, found dead in the grounds of the so-called Butterfly House. A place that has been inhabited by squatters. One of them, Gerrard, found the body. He’s a very bright university student who also happens to be Violetta’s boyfriend. Violetta is Norma’s daughter with Octavi’s brother – but Violetta (and the rest of the family) considers Octavi to be her father.

Norma should not take the case but is so concerned about protecting her daughter she ignores that fact only to be overridden by her boss. Deputy Inspector Carrasco takes over as the lead. As things develop Norma finds it difficult to step away and then Carrasco gets ill. Norma oversteps! Of course, it leaks to the media – who would do such a thing? It has to be a colleague given the information that is reported!

Norma is put on leave so her colleagues Gabriel and Laura under direct supervision of Inspector Roca are left to find out what happened, who killed Raquel Bosch and why. There were a number of leads, thoughts and ideas about Raquel’s killer all going to a dead end until Norma has an idea. Although, as she is now on enforced leave, Norma has to quietly talk with Gabriel about it. Norma also really wants to know who betrayed her to the press and the wonderful Aunt Margarida against Norma’s wishes does a little digging as only she can!

There are the more personal stories around Octavi and Norma’s relationships with other people and how they are each affected by them. The personal relationships are a large part of the story but do not overwhelm the investigation into the Butterfly House murder. Octavi’s work on the dreadful air crash is in no way addressed in a ghoulish or graphic manner but the horror of such a tragedy is clearly evident.

The investigation also reflects the ongoing difficult issues being faced in Spain with regard to job losses, financial losses and how it affects the country’s economy, attitudes towards politics and its people. There are no easy solutions, are there ever when a recession hits?

A terrific second part of this series which is growing the character’s, their relationships as well as delivering such good stories. It’s a book that brings you to an interesting perspective on a city – Barcelona – that would usually be a gorgeous travel destination but is, of course, the home to so many who have to live in and around the city day in and day out with all the usual events that come to pass and how they need to handle them. It shows how life has similarities across cities and countries as the backdrop to what we hope are events that rarely happen.

There are some intriguing open ended questions that I look forward to find being answered in future books. This continues on the very good beginnings of Black Storms to what is looking more and more like a terrific series well worth reading.

Previously read: Black Storms

BlogTour

Many thanks to Ewa Sherman for the invitation to join the The Butterfly House  BlogTour and to Corylus Books for kindly providing an eBook to read and share my thoughts on.

Information

Publisher: Corylus Books | Release date for e-book and paperback: 12th September 2026

Paperback | 208 pp | ISBN:9781917586283

Pre-order available

Bookshop.org UK | Gumshoe Books | Foyles

Buy: From above links or Your local bookshop | Hive | Amazon | Bookshop.org | or ask Your local library to order

Author

Teresa Solana is one of Spain’s best-known crime writers, with a distinctive style blending humour, satire and thought-provoking social issues. Several of her novels have been translated into English, most recently Black Storms, the first in a trilogy featuring Deputy Inspector Norma Forester of the Catalan police. She is a recipient of many national and international awards, including a CWA Dagger for her short story ‘I Detest Mozart’.

Books

Corylus Books

Black Storms | The Butterfly House

Bitter Lemon Press 

A Shortcut to Paradise (The Borja and Eduard Barcelona Series Book 1) | A Not So Perfect Crime (The Borja and Eduard Barcelona Series Book 2) | The Sound of One Hand Killing (The Borja and Eduard Barcelona Series (3)) | The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and Other Stories

Translator

Peter Bush is an award-winning translator from Catalan, French, Spanish and Portugues, formerly Professor of Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia and director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.