*Many thanks to Marc Fernandez, Skyhorse Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with arc in exchange for my honest review.*
A novel based on real events revealed only recently. The Franco regime took infants from their parents under the pretence that their babies had died, and later the babies were brought up by those who supported the regime. The story is well-written and makes us aware that the Franco regime followed the SS Lebensborn idea.

Here is a book to become angry about. It relates to a plot under Franco in Spain to take the babies of opposition minder intellectuals and pretend they’d died at birth. Meanwhile the stolen infants would be placed with government supporting couples who could raise he child in correct political thinking.
When Isabel a successful lawyer learns of these horrors from her Grandmother she leaves a successful practice in France to help set up the NASB in Spain to bring stolen babies into everyone consciousness.
Meanwhile some contract like killings have come to the attention of investigative journalist Diego who is a free thinker who often opposes government controls, to produce radio shows that challenge the status quo.
He is assisted by a liberal judge, David Ponse, and an intrepid freelance detective, Ana, with contacts to fill in the background to his stories.
An interesting story of real moral outrage; implicating the establishment for being complicit in this scandal. Many will try to stop Isabel and her campaign for justice and Diego wants to bring the story to the wider audience through his programming.
I really enjoyed the change of location for a political thriller and the diverse players in this stories. My only criticism is that it isn’t a longer novel. This means that short-cuts happen where you might have expected more mystery and misdirection.
While none of this brevity takes away the power of the story I feel a longer novel could have explored motivations, justification and retaliation in greater detail. This would have made a more engrossing and compelling novel in my opinion but for what we have I can not remain too disappointed. It is a well translated story of the struggle for justice and the steps some take to prevent truth coming into the public domain and the frustrations of working in a regimented system that governs in secrecy.

The premise of this book is unique and promising and it was exciting to discover a new fiction novel where Spanish politics play a big role in the story line. The unmasking of a conspiracy where children during Franco's time were abducted and given to wealthy families provokes a national crisis that affects many people across the whole of Spain. The novel begins suddenly with an unexpected murder that at first appears to have no motive. It is soon followed by other similar murders across Spain that the authorities discover are all carried out by one of the activists who is heavily involved in the protests. The plot slowly unravels as the main character, Diego Martin, provides the space and publicity for affected families and protestors to voice their opinion on his radio show.

Unfortunately, I was still unable to connect to Diego or the other characters even several chapters into the book. This definitely felt more like a plot-driven political drama rather than a historical crime noir and it was disappointing to see one murder after another with little forethought of the characters' emotional state. Diego came across as a sincere man willing to do everything in his power to reveal the horrors of the past crimes but almost every chapter written from his perspective felt monotonous and predictable.

Despite my struggle to enjoy this book, I was glad to have discovered one of the conspiracies in Spanish history that to this day remains almost taboo. The execution of the writing and plot as a whole was not as smooth as expected but I commend the author on conveying such a difficult subject matter with sensitivity and thought.

Mala Vida — a noir by Marc Fernandez, translated by Molly Grogan — is the kind of novel that should be like catnip for me. It has a radio journalist as one of the protagonists (my parents and my grandfather were in radio, if you want to score points with me, feature a radio cabin and you get an extra star), at one point one of the characters goes to a city I've visited (Valencia, during the festival of the Falles, where I hate to say I fell ill with food poisoning courtesy of a paella) and it offers an exciting premise (decades-long baby snatching).

Unfortunately, just like that sad paella which prompted a belly ache, this dish didn't sit quite right with me. I attribute part of the novel's issues to its stilted language, and I suspect some of it may be the translation's fault. I sense something has been lost here; the passages seem sterile, as though a pinch of salt might be required.

Not everything, however, can be blamed on the use of language. In the end, Mala Vida just feels very technical, like reading the ingredients of a recipe instead of sampling the dish, all the bits of the story fitting together in a not terribly exciting way, when this should be an explosive noir story of post-Franco Spain.

I've had an interest in Spanish history and especially the Franco period even before I picked it as my thesis subject. It's easy to say that when I came across Mala Vida and read the blurb I was sold immediately. A story partially set in one of my favorite European cities and one I know closely: check. An intriguing historical background and mystery: check. A healthy dose of crime fiction, suspense and plot twists: check. Oh yes, while Mala Vida is mostly a contemporary crime thriller, it also included a historical element and a very intriguing and devastating one at that. This story was originally written in French back in 2015, and will be available in English next week. The translation works splendidly and I had a great time reading this story. The writing style made it easy to keep myself invested in the story; there are flashbacks, different point of views and plot twists that will keep you on edge until you have everything figured out. The setting was a huge bonus for me and I liked the inclusion of cultural elements to make the setting feel more authentic. The historical case discussed in Mala Vida is fascinating and I liked how we get multiple views on the topic through the different characters. Diego's character is very interesting and I liked that he is a journalist. The same goes for the other main characters: each has their own personality, background and adds a little something unique to the story. All in all a very successful read for me! 

If you like stories with an international setting that can offer a little something different and outside the box, you should definitely consider Mala Vida. Part legal thriller, part historical, part mystery and part crime fiction, this story is a mix of a lot of different elements and very well executed at that. I personally loved the Spanish setting, the diversity of the main characters and the story as a whole. The historical element is both well executed and shocking and will definitely leave a mark... A very interesting read and one I'm very glad I came across.

Yes, this novel is named after a song by Manu Chao, and the idea for this thriller is brilliant: French-Spanish author Marc Fernandez employs tropes of classic noir - the lonely and traumatized hero, the private detective, the femme fatale, the menacing city, the conspiracy of the powerful and the corrupt, the revenge plot - twists them a little and transports the story into a modern setting, thus rendering the whole book into a piece of social criticism. After an extreme right-wing party won the Spanish elections and starts to purge the political and the media system, the now threatened political talk radio host Diego encounters the mysterious lawyer Isabel who uncovered a scandal: During the Franco era, the leading politcal caste stole children from regime critics and had them adopted by loyal families. According to the Amnesty Law, those crimes cannot be punished - Diego and Isabel share the opinion though that the country can only move forward when it faces its history. Together with the Argentinian (think of Argentina's history!) transgender private detective Ana, they start to dig deeper to bring justice to the victims and their families - but they are facing strong oppononents...

I really enjoyed how Fernandez updates the noir genre, and how he manages to write a suspenseful and entertaining thriller with a message that combines the treatment of history in a post-fascist country and the extreme right-wing threats this country (and many others) are currently facing. It is true that during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco era, up to 300,000 children were abducted, and many of them became victims of illegal adoptions and child trafficking. In his book, Fernandez illustrates how people in modern Spain do/could deal with this, and what consequences the society has drawn - thoughts that are relevant for many other states as well.

Unfortunately, the way the story is told left me unsatisfied, and I am not sure whether the original Spanish version or the translation is to blame. The text is not particularly atmospheric and often feels very technical in its descriptions of the plot and the connections between different parts of the story - I hate to write this, because I want to applaud Fernandez for his ideas, but the language is severely lacking.

On top of that, Fernandez seems to be generally a cool dude, at least he's friends with Manu Chao, who wrote the title-giving song for Mano Negro. Here's an excerpt of the text, that, in the light of the novel, sheds different meanings:

"Dime tu porque te trato yo tan bien
cuando tu me hablas como un cabrón
me estas dando..., me estas dando... Mala Vida!
Cada dia se la traga mi corazón!
(...)
Tú me estas dando mala vida
yo pronto me voy a escapar
(...)
Proxima estación..., proxima estación..., Esperanza!"
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPjV...)

This could have been much better, but Fernandez is definitely an author to watch out for!

Thank you Net Galley. I was eager to read this book. The blurb was appealing. However, I could not settle down with this book. It took me a long time to get through it. Parts of it were poorly written/translated and were hard to read.

Mr Fernandez has written one of the most damning exposes of a horror possibly perpetrated by the regime of Francisco Franco during his rule of Spain. Franco became the dictator of the Spanish Republic due to the victory of his side in the Spanish Civil war and ruled until his death in 1975. The novel is a fictionalized account of the murder of five individuals by one person and tied together as punishment for their role in the stealing of infants from their mothers at birth.

The novel opens in present day Spain during a time of economic downturn. It centers on Diego Martin, a radio commentator, who is trying to build up interest in his radio show in order to keep his spot on the air. He decides to investigate the first murder and continues to look at the next four. The results of his investigations tie in these murders with the stealing of infants and selling them to highest bidders. A plot begun during the Franco years and continuing beyond. A group of protesters has grown into a national organization attempting to push the Spanish government into a complete investigation of the infant stealing. Diego finds his murder investigation is related to the work of the protesters and uses his radio show to give them much needed publicity.
Mr Fernandez spares no punches in describing the devastation brought to families upon realizing that their baby has been stolen from them at birth. These women and their families live a lifetime knowing what happened and not having the means to try and find their children. It is a novel that should resound throughout the world and cause outcries far beyond Spanish boundaries. A short portion included in the book indicates that the very same horror has also taken place in Argentina during the Peron era.
The novel is a short one, finished in one sitting, but undoubtedly leading to a feeling of outrage on the part of the reader that activities such as described are taking place in today's world. The author has no plan to offer, but easily accomplishes the task of bringing to light a horror that should shock the civilized world.