WINNER OF THE CWA DAGGER FOR CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION A gem of a book easily the best I've
read this year. A contemporary police procedural with a literary edge. I was rooting for the
flawed but deeply compassionate Melchor Marín from the first page to the last. Highly
recommended M W Craven Two dead at the Adell house . . . But nothing in the duty officer's
report can prepare Melchor Marín for what he finds. A wealthy couple tortured to death in an
almost ritualistic manner. The little town of Gandesa in the backwater region of Terra Alta
Catalonia is suddenly at the eye of a media storm. Melchor is no stranger to notoriety. He was
sent to Terra Alta to lie low after foiling a terrorist attack. And before that he was jailed
for his role as driver for a Colombian drug cartel his decision to join the police inspired by
a desire to avenge his mother's murder and a copy of Les Misérables from the prison library.
Gradually the leads in the Adell case dry up and Melchor is ordered to back off. He doesn't
willing to sacrifice his reputation and career in a ruthless pursuit of the truth. But dusk is
already falling on the darkest night of his life. Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
