Lost in Sierra

John Walker is a professor of Spanish at Queen’s University.

When Ana Reid’s beloved abuela (grandmother) dies in Toronto, she
leaves an airline ticket for her granddaughter to visit Sierra, the
village of her ancestors. Once Ana reaches the family home, her
adventures begin, as if her abuela had planned it thus.

In the family home, full of tunnels and mysterious rooms, she finds
letters and papers dating back to the time of the Spanish Civil War
(1936–39) and involving Luis, her grandmother’s brother, who
disappeared during the war. With the help of her great-aunt Eleanor and
the connivance of her young school friend Paco, Ana becomes embroiled
(always on her little motorbike) in a story of espionage and betrayal
involving a sinister ex-secret police (Montilla) and some unfriendly
villagers. Using her chess games with Eleanor as a symbol of the civil
war, Ana penetrates to the root of the mystery—but not before she has
to make a return trip to Montreal, where the whole story unfolds and
becomes clear to Anna, just as her beloved abuela had hoped and planned.

Lost in Sierra is a rattling good adventure story, replete with
political and military references to the complex causes, events, and
results of the Spanish Civil War (between General Franco and the
Republican forces), which tore Spain apart and cost a million lives.
This aspect of the novel may be more suitable to an older teen
readership.