AUTHOR: Rafael Reig
PUBLISHER: TusQuets
GENRE: Noir Fiction, Thriller
READER’S NAME: Madeline Peña
DATE: 06/30/2013

Lo que no está escrito is a hard-to-put-down, fascinating book that is somehow difficult to fit into one category since it has elements of noir fiction, thriller, crime and family drama. It follows the lives of a divorced couple, Carlos and Carmen,  and their teenage son, Jorge, as they deal with the consequences of a bitter divorce.

On the day that Carlos takes Jorge for a weekend-long camping trip, he secretly leaves a copy of his novel for Carmen to read. His writing becomes a secondary story in the book, a dark tale about a kidnapping that takes readers inside the mind of thief and murderer Antonio "Toni" Riquelme--and possibly inside the mind of Carlos himself.

The author cleverly intertwines both stories and creatively connects them by ending each of the chapters about the kidnapping with a crossword clue for the word that starts the next chapter--both Carlos and Toni are crosswords fanatics.

Overall the narrative is clever, intriguing, and entertaining, but also raw and misleading. The story at times feels slow and repetitive, but the author succeeds at keeping the reader interested and always wondering what will happen next.

This is not a feel-good book with a happy ending. This work is charged with sex, violence, evil, abuse, manipulation, lies, selfishness, and resentments. Some readers might feel that the story is not complete, and might be left wanting for more. But the author intentionally created this scenario to allow readers to fill in the blanks and figure out themselves "what was not written."

Two previous works of Rafael Reig have been translated into English, Blood on the Saddle (Guapa de cara) in 2006, and A Pretty Face (Sangre a borbotones) in 2008. These books received positive reviews by Library Journal, BookList, and Publishers Weekly.

In my opinion, Lo que no está escrito is original and interesting, and a good candidate for translation into English language.