This is not a standard police procedural. Nor is about a tragic, world-weary DI with dark secrets in her past. It seems that it's about a deeply intuitive, well-trained investigator being asked to see what is happening in the town she grew up and being challenged to open herself up to the possible reality of things she had long ago dismissed as myths.
It's very well done. It doesn't push. It doesn't use clichès or tropes as a short cut to exposition. It also doesn't really let me in Salazar's head. Rather it lets me watch her as closely as someone who knows her well might have the opportunity to do. It presents scenes from her history and share some of her reactions but it sets me the challenge of reading her.
I'm rather enjoying that. It's nice when an author has the courage not to present a definitive version of a person. I'm sure there's no definitive version of me, so why should I believe a definitive version of a fictional character.
Salazar's aunt reads the Tarot. There is an interesting discussion on what is needed to read the cards. The aunt believes it requires a talent she calls being a 'super receptor' and that, for those with the talent, the cards provide a framework for gathering information and presenting a narrative. This rang true for me. I used to read the tarot and read palms when I was at university. Later I qualified in using various psychometric tests. I found that both of them gave me the same kind of framework for reading people or, more accurately, for helping people read themselves.
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