I want to start by mentioning that I didn’t realize this was the second book in a series when I began reading it. That said, the book does recap the main points from the first installment, so I didn’t feel completely lost, although I might have missed some inside jokes or references. I do think I would have benefited from reading the first book first, but unfortunately, I didn’t.

This story is essentially a blend of Sherlock Holmes and a mob hit narrative. Antonia possesses a "special brain" that allows her to see things others cannot. She and her partner, Jon, who also acts as her protector, are tasked with finding Lola Moreno, the wife of a recently murdered mobster. As the plot unfolds, we discover that not everything is as it seems; there are layers of deceit and involvement from Russian criminals.

The story itself is okay; there's enough action to keep it engaging. However, I felt that if I had to hear one more time how Jon was big but not fat, I would scream. We get it—there’s no need to mention it 30 times. Strangely enough, I found myself more concerned about the poor dog than any of the human characters, some of whom get severely beaten.

The concept of the Red Queen project is intriguing, and I think I would have grasped it better if I’d read the first book, but I like the idea of this special unit within the police force. The narrator did an excellent job bringing the story to life and injecting some energy into it.

Overall, I found the story to be alright. It features familiar elements such as Russian gangsters, crime, corruption, mysterious entities, and a woman with a unique ability. Is it worth reading? Yes, but I recommend starting with the first book before diving into this one.

Update: TikTok post March 11

Black Wolf is an outstanding audiobook that kept me immersed throughout the novel. The sound quality and acting are top notch. The narrator does a fantastic job making the many characters distinct and matches the emotionally-rich writing.

This book follows the events of Red Queen. Antonia Scott 's skills are needed for a challenging case involving the murder of a prominent mafia man and an attempt to kill his pregnant wife.

Antonia's not willing to let go of a case she must resolve for personal reasons. The push-pull between Antonia and Jon, the police inspector who serves as her shield, is moving and entertaining. The dimensional characters and disturbing crimes kept me enthralled.

The multiple crimes and their underpinnings are high-stakes, chilling, and realistic. Gómez-Jurado displays full mastery of every aspect of thriller writing. The translation is wonderful. The book has a strong ending, and it includes the beginning of the next book, White King, the trilogy's powerful conclusion. It's releasing this week, too, so you won't have to wait for it.

A few reasons to read the Antonia Scott trilogy:
🌈One of my favorite gay characters–a huge, strong, single Basque man raises the bar for gay heroes
♀️An extraordinary woman who isn't sexualized or used to put down other women
☠️ Intense crimes, male and female villains, and high-concept vision
>Powerful writing, scintillating use of language, and crunchy new words in multiple languages
>Excellent suspense, plotting, and characterizations--even minor characters come to life
>Scott Brick gives a stellar vocal performance in the audiobooks
💜 Antonia and Jon and their fully dimensional relationship will stay with me

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALCs of Black Wolf and White King via NetGalley for consideration. These are solely my own opinions.

4.5 stars

My god, I love this series! And I'm so grateful to have the audiobook because Scott Brick does the absolute best job narrating!

This book is dark, foreboding, suspenseful, evocative, and funny. If I had a dime for every time John said, "not that I'm fat," it cracks me up. Or the author writes something like, "She was feeling confused. She said, 'I'm feeling confused.'" I don't know why that makes me laugh so much, but it does. The characters were commpelling, the plot fast and full of action, and though I usually hate mafia stories from any country, I could not stop this book. I love the intellectual detecting and Antonia's intensity when she's in the zone, though her suffering is disturbing, and I want all the details of her backstory! John's moral compunction is also interesting, which both keeps the pair on the fence between right and wrong, and also emphasizes the grey area they all have to work in. It's good fodder for the thinking reader. I love his little temper tantrums. And the total terror he experiences when Antonia drives. The pairing is brilliant, the opposites and commitment they have to one another despite all their whining make for a relatable and amusing experience being a fly on the wall. These books are very well written and addictive, and even when Antonia makes me think she's an adult Eleven (from Stranger Things), I can't help but be fascinated by the creativity in the stories.

I love a good mystery / series. Unfortunately, neither is to be found here.
Yikes! Nothing but ‘telling’ and over explaining things which could’ve easily been shown by a strong writer.

I do not recommend this read to anyone who doesn’t enjoy being mansplained to for 11 hours.

No stars.


🎧 Audio:
The audio was okay, smooth overall sound quality, good narrator. 4 stars

If you’re reading a series that combines the hyper intelligent sleuthing of Sherlock Holmes with the sarcastic police procedural of the John Corey series, but it also includes mysterious killers and political intrigue… then you’re probably reading the latest thriller from Juan Gomez-Jurado.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This took me awhile to get into, still wasn't really my cup of tea but overall not a bad read

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Negalley for the complimentary audiobooks

This one had a rough start for me. The dialogue felt clunky and forced and it took me a long time to get into it. I also didn’t love the way some lines were translated. For example, in one scene Jon was talking to Antonia, she took a while to respond and the line said something along the lines of ‘She took two and a half weeks to respond’. We wouldn’t say that in English, it would be more like ‘she took forever to respond’. I know, I’m nitpicking, but when I had to do translations in college that was drilled into us, you don’t always translate word for word. Could I translate a whole book? Absolutely not, but this still irked me. Once the story really got rolling, I couldn’t stop listening though. It was exciting and kept me on my toes guessing. The ending dug it’s hooks even further into me, I can’t wait for book 3. I was so happy to see Scott Brick was the narrator again, he is THE voice of Jon and I hope he continues reading this series.

Black Wolf
Juan Gómez-Jurado
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


A tour de force police procedural that quickly evolves into a mystery-thriller, Black Wolf begs the reader to immediately want more. Thankfully, this is the second book in a quirky trilogy that has been recently translated from Spanish and has won international awards.

The award-winning first novel was adapted into an amazing seven-episode series on Prime Network in February 2024. The star of the show and books is the reluctant and brilliant detective, Antonio Scott, who possesses an IQ of 242. She has a rare intelligence and a mind that sees what few others can. She is as compelling and unconventional as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. From simple observations at a crime scene, she solves baffling murders. Her skills are legendary and continue to build as she works for a shadowy international agency known as the “Red Queen Project.” This project operates outside conventional law enforcement and answers to no higher authority, with units hidden from public scrutiny and social media in multiple European countries. They specialize in dealing with serial killers, pedophiles, terrorists, and human traffickers. Antonio’s only intermediary is known by the codename: Mentor. In the field, Antonio is accompanied by a “shield bearer”—an overweight gay cop, Inspector Jon Gutierrez. He provides Antonio with a buffer in dealing with “real-life” problems and logistics, sometimes muscle, and a grounding in humanity.

Police uncover a shipping container containing the remains of eight women. Meanwhile, trafficker Yuri Voronin is brutally murdered by the Russian Mafia, and his pregnant trophy wife, Lola Moreno, narrowly escapes and flees for her life, not knowing where to run or who to trust. Antonio and Jon are immediately assigned to the case by Mentor, with a high priority to find Lola before she is terminated. The mob, desperate to eliminate Lola, hires the notorious Black Wolf (“Chernaya Volchista”) to finish the job. Known as a vicious executioner and assassin who never fails, Antonio will have multiple terrifying confrontations with Black Wolf as blood spills and the body count rises.

Juan Gomez-Jurado proves to be a masterful storyteller as he weaves multiple plot twists together in a race against time while impending danger escalates for victims and investigators.

Unexpected confrontations in bloody detail intensify the intrigue and suspense. The last quarter of the book turns into a frenetic page-turner.

I personally switched back and forth between the audio and written versions. This tale was narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Scott Brick, a multiple award-winning narrator with deeply-seated experience as an actor. (I suggest jumping onto the roller coaster rides of Gregg Hurwitz’s “Orphan X” series—all narrated by the amazing Scott Brick.) Scott has the unique talent of providing an individual voice and timbre to each character, turning the tale into a dramatic presentation rather than just a “reading.” I cannot wait until the publication of the highly anticipated concluding novel, “White King.” This series has proven to be a gift to thriller aficionados.

Thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Macmillan Audio for providing an Uncorrected Proof and Advance Audio version for my review, in exchange for an honest review.

Looking for a brilliant crime novel ?
The Antonia Scott trilogy is brilliant and as of last week the second book Black Wolf is out so the wait till the third book next year won't be as long since I promise you will want to keep reading.
Antonia is special, she is a highly trained forensic operative that received ethically questionable training to enhance her superior intellectual capabilities and quickly asses any crime scene and clock all the details and solve the puzzles presented - but she has met her master in a highly traumatic personal event that has left her unable to work for the past three years but now she is needed. At her side she has Jon a police detective by training, with a very high emotional intelligence who manages to balance her out (to a certain degree) and this duo is fantastic. Together, they are tasked with solving high-profile crimes in an off-the-books, extremely low-profile way.
The first crime is a teenage boy from a wealthy family whose body is left without any blood in it. Then, the adult daughter of a billionaire goes missing, and they have limited time before she, too, is executed.
In the new second book the Russian Mafia is hunting the southern Spanish coastline for the wife of a money launderer who was executed. An attempt on her life has been made but now both local police and the mafia are looking for her ...
These novels are witty and smart, extremely fast paced to the point of being a little stressful action thriller like.
The book Red Queen is the basis for a new Amazon series and I have even given it to my father for his birthday - this series really is that good. It gets a lot of Lisbeth Salander comparisons which I understand, my father compared Antonia to laria Tuti's Teresa Battaglia, if you like crime fiction in translation and traveling to foreign locals (in the second book even to the snowy Sierra Madre) these books are highly recommended!
I listened to the audio narrated by Scott Brick and it enhanced my enjoyment - at times it felt as if Jon Gutierrez was narrating.

Black Wolf (Antonia Scott, #2)
by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Spanish investigators and Russian mafia make a thrilling case of Espionage and cultural manipulation. This horrific story of the affects of the Russian mafia their use of drugs, prostitution, and exploitation. The affects of their practice caused many personal struggles for the characters. They are set up against a very fine tuned investigator whom is given the task of finding the killer or a Jane Doe found in the river bed. The book shows the corruption that enable the mafia and their exploitation of Spain.

In this sequel to Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado, we're back with Antonia Scott and Jon Gutierrez following their successful first case. Antonia is still mentally stuck there, but they're being pulled into a new case involving the mafia, a woman on the run, and a mysterious contract killer known as the Black Wolf. Antonia and Jon must deal with foes on all sides, including their own personal demons.

The narrator, Scott Brick, does a fantastic job with this series!

Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for a free copy of #BlackWolf by Juan Gomez-Jurado. All opinions are my own.

John Gutierrez and Antonio Scott are back with a vengeance in this taut sequel to Red Queen. Once again the unlikely duo get dragged into a rescue mission, this time to find the pregnant wife of a dead Russian informant. Oh, and the wife is also diabetic and doesn't have her insulin. And there's a mysterious Russian assassin known only as the Black Wolf on her trail.

Lots of twists and turns keep this story moving, along with even more development of the complicated relationship between John and Antonio. Scott Brick once again does a fantastic job narrating, though at times it was difficult to be sure who was speaking. I'm already anticipating the third installment in this series!

This was a wild ride and I was totally here for it! This was a great follow-up to Juan Gómez-Jurado's Antonia Scott 01 - The Red Queen. I wish all of the books in the series were translated into English, but I guess I will just have to be patient! I really enjoy the relationship between Antonia and Jon, let's hope he doesn't actually quit the job of protecting her and can help her kick her pill addiction! I can't wait to see what happens in the next book! How does Antonia get out of her kidnapping?!! Does Jon rescue her? Does she find a way to rescue herself?

I listened to this as an audiobook and Scott Brick narrated it. I love his work and he really brought it to life for me.
Juan Gómez-Jurado wrote an 5⭐️ that was engaging and impassioned. It was well done and thought-provoking. Antonia Scott and Jon Gutierrez were unique and one of a kind characters. It was sometimes too crude for my liking but it was good. I love the author’s intense writing. His descriptions suck me in.
This was book 2 in the series but I feel like it can be a stand-alone.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

Antonia and Jon are partners for a secret European organization known as The Red Queen. We first met them in the first book in this series titled The Red Queen. Antonia is intelligent and has been trained to hone her observations and skills making her one of the most intelligent people in the world.

Jon and Antonia have a love/hate relationship. Antonia is very closed off and doesn't share much. She is broken from the shooting of her husband who is currently in a coma with little chance of recovery. While their relationship is fraught with ups and downs, especially surrounding Antonia's drug usage and secrets regarding who they work for Jon still cares about her. They make a great team and I love the interplay between the two of them.

There is a ton of action in this book as they search for the missing wife of a Russian mobster who was gunned down. The cops don't particularly want their help but also seem to be very short handed in a place that seems to attract criminals. There is also another killer hunting the missing woman. The Black Wolf, a trained Russian assassin who everyone is afraid of. She is the boogie man of the mob and she is hot on the trail of the missing woman with Jon and Antonia following along.

I love the characters in these books and this one ended on a big cliff hanger that I can't wait to find out more. Translated from Spanish it doesn't seem to have lost anything in the translation. Fluid and well written I'm excited to keep up on this series.

The 2nd book in this series was very well written. The characters are unique and very likable. The story line was interesting and I was caught up in it right off the bat. The narrator is top notch. Scott Brick could read anything and make it sound amazing, but when he has such great material to work with it is an even more enjoyable experience. I can't wait for the next in this series. Keep them coming!

Really great follow-up to Red Queen, can't wait for the third book to be translated! Engaging story and the narrator brings it to life.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the audiobook.

I'm a huge fan of thrillers. I was looking forward to this book! However, I couldn't stay focused. I felt unattached to this book. I wasn't a fan of the "Can't eat a slice of toast. It'll go to my butt" part of the story. I found many of the characters to be distant and lacking.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Antonia Scott series is set in Europe, in Spain. Antonia and her partner, Jon, are sort of government agency law enforcement but a special program. Jon is gay; he has had some issues with trying too hard to get the bad guys. Rather than jailing him, he works with Antonia. Antonia has a high IQ. She is excellent with deductions and her unit uses special drugs to enhance her abilities.

I like the main characters. We get some of their personal aspects and stories as they work together. Antonia has a son who lives with her father. Her husband was injured and is in the hospital. Antonia is also preoccupied with some loose ends from the last case.

Antonia and Jon are in a smaller town looking for the wife of a Russian mobster. The wife, Lola, is pregnant and diabetic. There is a good chance the mob bosses want to kill her as they have just murdered her husband. In fact, it seems they may have hired the Black Wolf, an assassin to take her out. We follow her journey of trying to hide from killers without money or anyone to trust.

The local cops are not happy to see Antonia and Jon and would get rid of them if they could. It seems odd since Antonia and Jon never take credit and might be a great help. In fact, they do help and learn a lot of things about the mobsters and why Yuri and Lola became targets.

The Black Wolf is another point of view we get. I didn't understand it was her thoughts until later. Her thoughts are mostly historical about the little girl in the ashes. I first thought they were Lola's history. Lola came from a poor place and her chance to better herself was to marry well, which she did. She loved her husband.

There is a huge action scene when all the players manage to get together in a remote location during a blizzard. Plenty of twists in this story. Things are not what one thinks. The very ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, going back to the case from the first book, Red Queen.

There is also a TV show, just starting, based on this series called Red Queen on Amazon Prime.

Narration:
Scott Brick is an excellent narrator and I have enjoyed several different works with him. It may be because I just read another series with him plus the action and situations in Black Wolf but I kept expecting Evan Smoak to show up. The voices all felt comfortable to me. I was able to listen at 1.5x speed.

"The black wolf isn't the bogey man. She's the one you call to kill the bogey man."

...and her target is the smartest woman in the world, with an IQ over 200, Europe's covert agent Red Queen. In the nonstop action packed high body count Black Wolf (Antonia Scott book 2) by overly talented author Juan Gomez Jurado, we start right back with our Red Queen (book 1), Antonia still (not) dealing with the tragedy of her husband, and an emotional wreck from the lost relationship, and custody, of her son from the first book.

Just like in the first book, there are a few events that seem unrelated that happen throughout Spain, from a murdered Mafia boss, his pregnant wife, Lola, escaping the killers and on the run, a cargo crate filled with nine dead suffocated women and a report that the Russian assassin Black Wolf has entered the country with one target, Antonia.

Once again, the award winning voice actor Scott Brick brings these intense, emotional, and surprisingly often humorous characters to life. My favorite character, Antonia's partner and handler (she tends to lone wolf it while having emotional breakdowns), Jon is his usual gay self deprecating clever one liner self with lines like, "He was so deep in the closet he couldn't see the door for the coat hangers."

This smartly executed translated from Spanish crime thriller can be a standalone but why would you not want to know the Red Queen's origin story (now a Prime Video series!)? Look for my book vs TV series post on it soon. The sly twists at the end will have you howling at the Black Wolf.

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.