In a dark and often overlooked chapter of General Francisco Franco’s 1939-75 dictatorship, the newborns of some left-wing opponents of the regime, or unmarried or poor couples, were removed from their mothers and adopted. The practice was later expanded. New mothers were frequently told their babies had died suddenly after birth and the hospital had taken care of their burials, when in fact they were given or sold to another family.
A line from the novel - no, this real life drama was being played out today as 85yo Eduardo Vela, who worked as a gynaecologist at the now-defunct San Ramón clinic in Madrid, arrived in court to face charges of taking a child from her biological mother and giving her to another woman, falsifying birth records in the process. The system – which allegedly involved a vast network of doctors, nurses, nuns and priests – outlived Franco’s death in 1975 and carried on as an illegal baby trafficking network until 1987 when a new law regulating adoption was introduced.
So this then is the premise of the story. However, we only discover this after a few chapters in as we are at first deceived into thinking that this is a political murder mystery with links back to the Franco era, due to the alternating narrative between the unnamed assassin and Diego Martin, the investigative journalist (and late night DJ).
This extremely controversial subject is tackled well, though I can't help thinking that this could have been teased out a little longer over a few more pages - all too soon certain anomalies are cleared up and the conclusion arrives all too neatly.
Having said that, this was a nice blend of historical fact and crime fiction.
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