Shadow of the Rock

‘Shadow of the Rock’ Reviews

THE TIMES – 11 August 2012

Thomas Mogford’s Shadow of the Rock is in fact set almost exclusively in Tangier, rather than the Gibraltar that gives the book its title. It all makes it ideal, if rather disturbing, reading if you’re holidaying in Morocco. His hero, the lawyer Spike Sanguinetti, owes his appeal, however, to his well-defined identity as a Gibraltarian of ancient Genoese extraction fluent in the patois and cosmopolitan customs of the mixed-race inhabitants of the controversial colony. When his old school chum Solomon Hassan, another classic Gibraltarian blend of Jewish and North African blood, turns up in his office fleeing accusations of murdering a well-connected Spanish girl on a Tangier beach, Sanguinetti feels obliged to help. His investigations lead him to a Moroccan strip club and an exotic Bedouin girl whose father disappeared after arguing with an international conglomerate building mammoth solar power plants in the desert. Sanguinetti soon comes to doubt whom he can trust in a corrupt and distrustful world of tribal customs, double-dealing and casual violence in the exotic setting of the most worldly city in the Maghreb. Evocative, engrossing and entertaining. Peter Millar

THE SPECTATOR – 24 November 2012

Books of the Year 2012

[An] excellent thriller … by [a] rising star … ‘Shadow of the Rock’, the first book by Thomas Mogford (Bloomsbury, £12.99), is partly set on Gibraltar. It’s exciting and assured — with a hero wonderfully called Spike Sanguinetti… Popular fiction at its best. Susan Hill

ARAB SPRING NEWS – September 14th 2014

Shadow of the Rock is the first in Thomas Mogford’s crime series featuring lawyer Spike Sanguinetti.  Spike lives on “the Rock,” i.e. Gibraltar with all its diversity of ethnicities (English, Spanish, Arabic) and associated issues.

 When Solomon Hassan, an old friend, desperately turns to Spike for help, he must listen.  Solomon has been accused of murdering a Spanish heiress in Tangier and escaping to Gibraltar.  He swears he’s innocent and begs Spike to take his case and prevent extradition back to Morocco.  The death penalty there is execution.

 What Spike learns is that the case is not so simple.  It will involve a renewable-energy company and its plans for solar-power in the Sahara.  In Morocco, the more Spike investigates (while the local police can’t be bothered) the more dangerous it becomes.  Deep in the desert, Spike is even subjected to a primitive Bedouin truth-telling test.

 Just when you think you’ve figured out “who done it,” some new wrinkle appears until, finally, the plot is revealed. . . or is it?  You will be shocked by the last twist in this thriller.

 Thomas Mogford has written two more in this series so look for them in future reviews.  I can hardly wait for more by this terrific mystery writer. Brenda Repland

THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE – August 2013

Summer Crime — Paperbacks

Word-of-mouth approval for any new title is something that publishers desperately seek, but are unable to guarantee. Bloomsbury, however, must be rubbing their hands when the phenomenon kicked in resoundingly with Thomas Mogford’s Shadow of the Rock, which arrives festooned with praise from the likes of William Boyd. Gibraltarian lawyer Spike Sanguinetti comes home to discover old friend Solomon Hassan on his doorstep. The latter is on the run from the police, after being accused of a savage killing in Tangiers. The Moroccan authorities want to extradite him, and Spike agrees to travel to Tangiers to delay his extradition… which is how Spike’s troubles really begin. This is an economically written thriller that delivers on every level.

MANLY DAILY, NEW SOUTH WALES – December 14th 2012

CULTURE PUTS BEAUTY INTO MOROCCAN MURDER TALE

Mogford’s Spike Sanguinetti is a wonderful protagonist in Gibraltar and as a tax lawyer is unenthusiastic about investigating murder and intrigue. However, his old school pal Solomon Hassan is in deep trouble fleeing from Morocco, where a young girl was found with her throat cut on a beach. He thinks his pal may be a little sleazy but not a murderer, so he catches the ferry to Tangier. Fantastic location and cultures make this a really good thriller. Mogford uses the divide between the poorest Bedouins and wealthy developers with effect. Rating: **** Maryan Hefferman

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION – Nightlife Book Review, 1st November 2012

Shadow of the Rock
by Thomas Mogford

Mogford read Modern Languages at Oxford University and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in law from City University in London. He also works as a translator and journalist on the UEFA Champions League. He lives with his young family in London and this is his first crime novel.

While following the writer Susan Hill on twitter a while ago the author wrote enthusiastically about Thomas Mogford’s debut thriller – naturally, I had to read it. And it is superb. A new fictional crime hero, Somerset ‘Spike’ Sanguinetti is a tax lawyer dividing his time between Spain, Gibraltar and Tangiers, Morocco. Spike is of Genoese extraction, and fluent in the patois (a combination of Spanish, French, Arabic and Hebrew).

Late one night an old school friend Solomon Hassan, a Sephardic jew turns up on Sanguinetti’s doorstep. He has crossed the straits from Tangiers, claiming that he is wanted for the murder of a rich industrialist’s daughter.

What follows is a cat and mouse game between Gibraltar, Tangiers and a remote Bedouin village in the Sahara Desert. We are not reading about the exotic Tangiers. In this engrossing novel we see the seedier underbelly, especially the slums of ‘Chinatown’ where sinister characters play a dangerous game of secrets, with corruption and lies. Spike also finds love with the mysterious Bedouin girl, Zahra.

An intriguing read, cross-referencing snippets about race, religion, languages and culture, geography and history in Gibraltar and Morocco. And yes, the apes on The Rock, of course.

It is a terrific read, highly intelligent and unputdownable.

Next year, Mogford will publish the sequel ‘Sign of the Cross’. Clare Calvet

Publisher Bloomsbury
Dist Allen & Unwin
Trade paperback
pages 260
$ 32.99

ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE – November Issue, 2012

Shadow of the Rock (Bloomsbury, $25), Thomas Mogford’s debut novel, features Gibraltar lawyer Spike Sanguinetti, a tax specialist, taking on a totally different problem when an old friend, Solomon Hassan, is accused of murder in Tangiers. Shadow of the Rock doesn’t feature a lawman swimming against the tide of corruption but rather lawyer who has no experience with criminal law reluctantly becoming involved with a murder case.

Hassan tells Spike that he was seen drinking and arguing with a girl at a Tangier beach bar shortly before she was murdered and left lying on the deserted beach. The girl was his boss’s step-daughter. When Hassan learned that he would be arrested he grabbed his passport and managed to flee from Tangiers to Gibraltar.

Spike agrees to help Hassan only if he agrees to surrender his passport and turn himself in to Gibraltar authorities. Spike then agrees to represent Hassan to try to prevent his extradition to Tangiers—a decision that leads Spike to visit Tangiers and Hassan’s employer, Dunetech.

It doesn’t take long for Spike to realize that Hassan has omitted telling him a great many details about his relations with the murdered woman, Esperanza. Dunetech officials Nadeer Ziyad and security head Toby Riddell offer little help but explain Hassan’s role in the eco-friendly company promising to bring solar energy and new wealth to the entire country.

Spike encounters a disorienting blend of blandishments and cooperation from Dunetech and government officials alike, while at the same time his attempts to learn more about Hassan and Esperanza’s last night in Tangiers leads only to dead alleys. A trip to the Sundowner Club, for instance, the bar where Hassan and Esperanza argued, in turn leads Spike to a beautiful Bedouin woman named Zahra that prompts an attempt to kill one or both of them.

Spike is forced into a world of intrigue where much more than his client’s guilt or innocence is at stake, and he must quickly learn how to survive while surrounded by desert sharks in Mogford’s very promising debut. Robert C. Hahn

THE COURIER MAIL (AUSTRALIA) – 27 October 2012

SHADOW OF THE ROCK

Thomas Mogford

Bloomsbury $29.99

LET me introduce you to Thomas Mogford and Spike Sanguinetti. They are both interesting characters, and I’m sure you’ll wish to make their acquaintance.

Mogford is one of those Brits who seems to have packed quite a bit into his short life, leading to early attempts at short fiction in a variety of magazines, then a semi-final spot in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Which all lead to the literary existence of Spike Sanguinetti.

Life as a lawyer in Gibraltar is very busy, if a little unfulfilling. There is always money to be made from clients wanting to take advantage of The Rock’s protected tax status, not to mention the geographic proximity to both Africa and Europe. Spike is a man who is acutely aware of all those invisible lines that can’t be crossed – until one night when he is approached by an old friend who wants to hire him for a different sort of business.

Solomon Hassan is a Sephardic Jew on the run from authorities in Tangiers, just over the Straits, accused of murdering a young Spanish woman. Spike catches the ferry across to check things out as a favour to his friend, and finds more than he bargains for – love, death, corruption and secrets.

Mogford has the ability to give a real sense of place to this exotic locale, which is at least as essential as the wonderfully drawn characters. Already looking forward to the next Spike Sanguinetti tale. VERDICT: GREAT DEBUT OF NEW WRITER, CHARACTER AND LOCALE. Ian Barry

THE OXFORD TIMES – 10th October 2012

Thomas Mogford’s… excellent new novel Shadow of the Rock (Bloomsbury, £12.99), is the first in a planned series featuring Gibraltar-based sleuth Spike Sanguinetti. On a Greek holiday… the gripping adventure proved ideal reading on my first few days in the sunshine. Christopher Gray

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW – October Issue, 2012

Shadow of the Rock
Thomas Mogford
Walker & Company
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
9780802779991, $25.00, www.walkerbooks.com

For a friend, one has to dig through the sands of the Sahara, and the heavy corruption of the people who live in it. “Shadow of the Rock” is a contemporary thriller from Thomas Mogford, follows Lawyer Spike Sanguinetti as he tries to aid his old friend Solomon Hassan through his accusations of murder, trying to stop an extradition. Working with a company called Dunetech to pass a deal, he finds there are few people to trust as he works with the company and finds he doesn’t like what he sees. “Shadow of the Rock” is a must for those seeking a modern thriller that evokes the cities of Northern Africa well, highly recommended.

LITERARY REVIEW – September Issue, 2012

And don’t miss:

‘Shadow of the Rock’  by Thomas Mogford (Bloomsbury 272pp £12.99)

A good start to a promised series featuring Spike Sanguinetti, a Gibraltarian lawyer. He crosses to Tangiers hunting evidence to prevent the extradition of an old friend who is on the run, suspected of murder. Spike gets involved in Moroccan big business and politics, meets a beautiful Bedouin girl, undergoes the almost obligatory torture, and doggedly solves the case. Jessica Mann

BOOKPAGE – 14 August 2012

Grab your geography book and ’fess up that you don’t really know that much about the British colony of Gibraltar, or about the current politics between “The Rock” and its contiguous country, Spain. But Thomas Mogford’s debut crime novel, Shadow of the Rock, sets us straight on all things Gibraltar as he introduces Spike Sanguinetti, a Gibraltarian tax attorney and amateur detective with a strong taste for finding out the truth of a matter.

The attorney’s story takes one exotic turn after another as he travels to the Moroccan city of Tangier, just nine miles away across the Strait of Gibraltar. He’s looking for answers—and a murderer—as his old friend Solomon Hassan sits in a Gibraltar jail, accused of cutting the throat of a Spanish woman, stepdaughter of one of his employers in Tangier. Hassan, presumed guilty, has escaped to Gibraltar, and the authorities in Tangier want him back to stand trial.

Spike seeks information in Tangier from Hassan’s employers at the mysterious but high-flying renewable energy company Dunetech, poised to extend its multi-national control with an enormous solar energy site under construction in the Sahara. The attorney sets out to untangle the web of deceit and corruption at the energy giant. He also traverses the bars and back alleys of the famous Moroccan city, and travels into the desert with a young Bedouin girl, where he encounters the gleaming solar array, not to mention the ancient Bedouin tradition of Bisha’a (a painful lie detection ritual)—to his extreme discomfort.

Mogford assigns a starring role to the politics and locations of this romantic and captivating region, where the exotic locales are the stuff of old Bogart movies. This tightly written, highly readable story needs no car chases or special effects to lure readers into an all-night read. There’s an appealing cast of characters: Dunetech high mucky-mucks Nadeer Ziyad and Ángel Castillo; robed and turbaned Bedouins; a corrupt Tangier bar owner; and Spike’s inventive hotel neighbor, Jean-Baptiste, with his exquisite knowledge of the highways and backways of Tangier. The intriguing chemistry between Spike and a police officer named Jessica will assure her return in upcoming sequels.

Spike will turn your head in this engrossing new series. Attractively, he seems to be free of the quick-comeback, wise-cracking demeanor that mars so many of today’s fast-track detectives. A follow-up novel, The Sign of the Cross, is in the works. Barbara Clark

SHOTS MAG – August 2012

When Gibraltarian tax lawyer Spike Sanguinetti finds old school friend Solomon Hassan on his doorstep asking for help, it’s not quite the help he’s accustomed to giving. Hassan has been accused of murder in Tangiers, and the Moroccan authorities want to extradite him to stand trial, without bothering to look too hard for a culprit. Furthermore, the victim is a young woman, with her throat cut – and Solomon admits to having been with her just before she died.

Spike travels to Tangiers in an attempt to delay extradition, on the grounds that his friend, who is Jewish, will not last long in a Moroccan jail. But really he’s there to probe into what happened.

He soon discovers that things are a whole lot more complex – and dangerous – than he thought, and that Solomon hasn’t been entirely frank with him. In no time at all, he’s trawling through seedy Tangiers nightclubs and the coastal strip known as The Gut, trying to find where the murder trail began and ended, and following a beautiful young Bedouin girl named Zahra into the shadowy and lethal confines of a bidonville (shanty town), in an attempt to unravel what really happened.

Catching up with Zahra soon makes Spike forget the dangers, however, and she tells him she is trying to find out what happened to her father, a village elder, who has disappeared.

Throw in some shady land deals surrounding a Green Energy scam, with lots of Euros involved, as well as people in high places, and danger is soon buzzing around Spike’s head like sandflies on heat.

Thomas Mogford paints a realistic picture of Gibraltar and its varied cultures, with particular attention to the ‘local’ rather than the British elements on the Rock, while weaving an intriguing and fast-paced tale. Although much of the action takes place in the streets and back alleys of Tangiers, peopled by businessmen on the make, the sans-papiers – illegals living hand-to-mouth while dreaming of getting into Europe – and the ever-present shadow of criminality stretching from the gutters to the very highest parts of society, there’s a clear image of the two worlds on either side of the Straits, and Spike’s attempts to tread a delicate path between them.

More PI than lawyer, Spike Sanguinetti is a likeable and engaging character, quite able (even accidentally) of getting his hands dirty if necessary. He also has an eye for a beautiful girl, especially one in distress.

With plenty of tension and action, and a vividly portrayed background with an engaging cast of ‘regulars’, this looks like the start of a very attractive series. And if you’ve never been to Gibraltar, and want to go somewhere unusual and interesting, this novel might tempt you to go. Adrian Magson

LIBRARY JOURNAL – July 2012

Debut of the Month – Shadow of the Rock: A Spike Sanguinetti Novel

Starred Review

Mogford, Thomas. Walker. Aug.2012. c.272p. ISBN 9780802779991. $25.

Gibraltar tax attorney Spike Sanguinetti agrees to help childhood schoolmate Solomon Hassan fight extradition to Morocco when Solomon is accused of murdering his boss’s stepdaughter, Esperanza, in Tangiers. Being Jewish, Solomon fled the country because he is convinced the Moroccans will happily convict him. Spike travels to Tangiers, where he finds the authorities less than cooperative and Solomon’s employer, a solar power company called Dunetech, most sinister. After a harrowing night, Spike tracks down Zahra, a Bedouin woman who knew Esperanza and suspects Dunetech had something to do with her death since the company covets the Bedouin lands. Spike manages to find enough allies to save his life, and along the way, he achieves some justice for those who need it most. VERDICT: Guns, grit, and torture: this breathtaking debut runs through the shifting sands with aplomb. Mogford’s exotic locales, gorgeous prose, and closing twist make this debut a showstopper. Teresa L. Jacobsen

BOOKLIST – July 2012

Shadow of the Rock.

Mogford, Thomas (Author)

Aug 2012. 272 p. Walker, hardcover, $25.00. (9780802779991).

International-crime-fiction fans looking for a new setting will find exactly what they seek in this engaging tale starring a melancholy lawyer in Gibraltar. Spike Sanguinetti, a native Gibraltarian, practices tax law, a lucrative business on the Rock, a tax haven straddling Africa and Europe, but he’s bored with the work and worn down from nursing his ailing father. Then an old friend, Solomon Hassan, turns up on Spike’s doorstep, on the run from a murder charge in Tangier. Spike agrees to help stall Hassan’s extradition from Gibraltar, but when he starts asking questions, he finds far more than a simple crime of passion. Hassan’s employer is a renewable-energy company about to sign a multimillionaire-dollar deal in Tangier, and a Bedouin woman who knew the murder victim is convinced the company has something to hide—something important enough to prompt murder. Mogford mixes three fascinating settings—the melting pot of Gibraltar, the teeming backstreets of Tangier, and the remote villages that are home to Bedouins—and, in the process, produces a crime novel rich in atmosphere and human conflict. Put this series on your radar. — Bill Ott

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – 14th May 2012

Shadow of the Rock

Thomas Mogford. Walker, $25 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8027-7999-1

British author Mogford’s intriguing debut, the first in a new series set in Gibraltar and Morocco, introduces Spike Sanguinetti, a tax lawyer turned detective. One night in Gibraltar’s Old Town, Spike runs into an old school friend, Sephardic Jew Solomon Hassan, who needs his help. Spike reluctantly agrees to represent Solomon in fighting extradition to Morocco, where Solomon is wanted for the murder of Esperanza Castillo, the tattooed, multipierced, promiscuous stepdaughter of Ángel Castillo, cofounder of a new solar energy venture that promises billions of euros in potential revenues. In Morocco, Spike meets Insp. Hakim Eldrassi of the Tangiers police, who’s confident Solomon is guilty, but Spike knows Solomon is incapable of murder. Spike later discovers that the key to the crime may lie with Zahra, a Bedouin waitress at the last place Esperanza was seen alive. Fans of mysteries set in exotic locales are in for a treat. Agent: Greene & Heaton Ltd. (Aug.)