Black Sun Rising

A bomb kills an English scientist in 1909 Barcelona, and his wealthy widow wants to know the identity of the woman he was seen with just before the explosion. Irish-Hispanic detective Harry Lawson, ailing yet game for the adventure, is recruited by Scotland Yard for this private assignment. He arrives in the Spanish city just as political tensions are about to boil over. The trail leads to a music hall mesmerist and then to a spate of mysterious deaths, where the bodies have been drained of blood. Add a French secret agent, a German operative, and a variety of anarchists, and there is a plethora of bad possibilities and narrow escapes, in addition to the investigation of the dead husband. The finale takes place in a hidden laboratory, at the end of la semana tragica, a real event that provides more background and historic personalities for this thriller.