Inspector Salazar is dispatched to her Baztán hometown to investigate the murder of a young woman displayed on a riverbank. But there’s more in those mysterious beech woods than a strangler.

But there’s more in these wet, mysterious beech woods than a strangler, and to solve the case Salazar not only delves into the world of tarot, folklore, and local traditions, but into the dreadful episodes of her childhood.

We learn about txantxigorris, basajuans, besagiles, and sorgiñas - there’s just the right amount of Basque vocabulary to give crunch. It’s also a novel about motherhood, fertility, betrayal, the loss of old-world decency, and the creatures of the Baztán countryside.

I was seduced by the Baztán setting, folklore, and language. This is an enjoyable gore-free whodunnit which balances its superstitious elements with the police procedural. Inspector Amaia and her sidekick DI Jonan Etxaide were sympathetic, and the scenes with Amaia’s mother and elder sister are deliciously warped. The love scenes were rather sugary and it seems preposterous that the male detectives did not know what lipgloss and mascara were, but I will be hunting the bookshops for the second in this beguiling trilogy.

The Invisible Guradian is followed by The Legacy of Bones and Offering to a Storm.

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