A Spanish police inspector, just days from retirement, is ordered to find a missing boy and to catch whoever had taken him, but quickly discovers that there are secrets that must be kept, a history that cannot be told, and that evil hides in dark places.

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Málaga province, Spain. 1970.
Captain Jesus Garcia of the Spanish Guardia Civil had never entirely believed that he would live to reach his retirement. After three decades of experiencing the worst of humanity, a comfortable state pension is just days away for the man, affectionately known by the younger police officers, as ‘The Inspector’.

But when the son of one of the most influential members of his remote town’s secretive community of German nationals goes missing, Garcia finds his tenure extended and he is ordered to direct his suspicion toward a recently arrived resident to the town, a retired British businessman and WW2 veteran. With the feared secret police on their way from Madrid, the pressure is on to find the boy and a culprit. Any culprit.

Garcia had survived the brutality of the Spanish civil war and the difficult years which followed by steering clear of situations such as this one, but he must now confront not only the legacy of his own past, but that of his troubled nation if he is to save the boy.

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Readers’ praise for Damian Vargas and THE DARK PLACE.

★★★★★ “A gripping, well-written, and utterly believable suspense thriller that will have you hooked from start to finish!”

★★★★★ “Damian Vargas knows how to tell a story. Impeccably researched and told with heart. A really satisfying read.”

★★★★★ “A proper page-turner and a somewhat different angle towards this part of history. Intrigue and drama by the bucketful…Vargas is getting better with every book.”

★★★★★ “…feels really well researched…really well written with lots of twists and a great ending.”

★★★★★ “…The author paints such a graphic picture of the characters and locations that it is easy to visualize the story, almost as if it's a film. The story draws you…I found myself unable to put the book down, turning page after page to see what would happen next.”