Inspector Alvarez Series by Roderick Jeffries

Mystery / crime series starring Enrique Alvarez, a police inspector in Mallorca, Spain, with the first in the series published in 1974 and the last (to date) in 2013.

Alvarez is nothing special as far as detectives go. He isn’t necessarily the smartest or most astute individual on the block. His strength lies in his determination. Alvarez is what one might call a humane detective.  He cares about people. More importantly, he cares about the people of Mallorca. And when something goes amiss, he cannot help but investigate, if only to make sure his community is safe. And Alvarez doesn’t stop hunting and seeking until he gets his man.

Alvarez’s heart is always getting him into trouble. He cannot help but stick his nose into other people’s business, especially when a murder occurs. Even when the victim in question is despised by all who knew him, and even when everyone on the island couldn’t be happier that the individual in question is dead, Alvarez makes it his goal to care.  He makes it his mission to deliver justice even when justice isn’t wanted. That often means stepping on all the wrong toes.

The Inspector Alvarez series is typically deliberately paced. Even in the most serious of criminal cases, Alvarez has a penchant for taking his time, slowly working through the evidence and scrutinizing the clues until he finds his suspect.

That is often what fails Alvarez’s targets. They tend to dismiss him and his slow-paced approach to detective work. They only realize their folly when the good inspector is at their doorstep, waiting to slap the handcuffs on.

A lot of the crime committed in the Inspector Alvarez series revolves around English men and women who are either staying on Mallorca or simply visiting. Sometimes trouble comes to them from within Mallorca.  Other times, they bring the trouble over from England. Either way, it falls on the shoulders of Alvarez to clean up their mess, and he does a pretty good job of it.

List courtesy of Fantastic Fiction (read L -> R)

Mistakenly in Mallorca	Two-Faced Death	Troubled Deaths
Murder Begets Murder	Just Desserts	Unseemly End
Deadly Petard	Three & One Makes Five	Layers of Deceit
Almost Murder	Relatively Dangerous	Death Trick
Dead Clever	Too Clever By Half	Murder’s Long Memory
A fatal Fleece	Murder Confounded	Death Takes Time
An Arcadian death	An Artistic Way To Go	A Maze of Murders
An Enigmatic Disappearance	An Artful Death	The Ambiguity of Murder
Definitely Deceased	Seeing Is Deceiving	An Intriguing Murder
An Air of Murder	A Sunny Disappearance	Murder Delayed
Murder Needs Imagination	An Instinctive Murder	Sun, Sea & Murder
A Question of Motive	Murder, Majorcan Style	Murdered By Nature
In Search of Murder

read more here @ Scene of the Crime