David A. Dummer’s The Coded Crucifix follows FBI psychologist Aaron Thornton after MI5 summons him to Britain for a secret meeting with former patient Tommy Magee, who warns that IRA leader Brianna Donovan is planning an operation in Pamplona during the San Fermín festival. Thornton travels to Spain with MI5 analyst Sarah Maylor, where their investigation turns toward El Gocho, a Venezuelan mercenary linked to international crime. Their search brings them to Ezequiel Naveros, whose family ranch is supplying fighting bulls for the festival, after suspicious payments place the breeder under scrutiny. Clues connected to Spain’s wartime past begin surfacing around Pamplona as July seventh approaches. With El Gocho moving through the city under changing disguises, Thornton and Maylor must work out what Donovan has set in motion before the festival becomes the setting for her plan.

David A. Dummer’s The Coded Crucifix is outstanding international suspense fiction. This fast-paced thriller is carried by a constant stream of danger, with the author handling its intense scenes superbly. A charging bull brings that threat into physical form. Questioning inside Pamplona Penitentiary brings the same pressure into another encounter. That intensity adds beautifully to the fleshing out of Aaron, whose instinct for guarded people shows when he gets a ranch hand talking after the young man shuts down with the police. Sarah is a formidable protagonist whose intelligence matches Aaron’s instincts, the level needed when El Gocho enters the picture. His mercenary skill is sharp, with surveillance expertise marking him as a formidable opponent. As the investigation moves through Spain, its settings become part of the thriller’s strength, from Frías, where hanging houses rise above the Ebro beneath its castle, to a cemetery near Villanúa, where tilted crosses stand among wild shrubs beneath the Pyrenees. Readers who appreciate intelligent international suspense will find plenty here. Very highly recommended.

In David A. Dummer’s The Coded Crucifix, Belfast informant Tommy Magee whispers that the IRA is planning something big in Pamplona on July 7. FBI psychologist Aaron Thornton is thrust into a week-long race across Spain to stop the terrorist attack. The target: the San Fermín festival, with its packed streets and thundering bulls. But first, Thornton must delve into the region’s dark history to uncover the exact nature of the plot. El Gocho, the most dangerous man in Spain, and perhaps the world, is the story’s main antagonist. He’s a Venezuelan mercenary who taunts investigators with the calling card EG-M1034, and stands in Thornton’s way. Thornton must decode the past and thwart El Gocho before the fiesta becomes a bloody massacre.

David A. Dummer drew me in with his character work. Belfast haunts Thornton, El Gocho sabotages him, and he is devastated by the murder of someone close to him. Every setback has strong emotional stakes. El Gocho is chilling, especially when he devoutly whispers, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” The author crafts dialogue that sparkles and cleverly conveys the psyches of the characters through their diction and accents, tinged with vernacular, especially Tommy Magee, who steals the early scenes. The Coded Crucifix examines legacy, loyalty, and the Spanish past that refuses to stay buried, including ETA terrorism and elements of the Spanish Civil War and WW2. It is twisty, and the unpredictable plot development makes this story a page-turner.