Semana Santa - Tapa blanda

“He keeps the reader guessing... relentlessly tightening the suspense until the end”
Daily Telegraph

“The claustrophobia of an introverted society... is portrayed with subtle skill: the personal passions come across with intensity and power. Semana Santa is a satisfying full-blooded read”
The Times

A supremely assured first novel with a Spanish setting that combines crime and psychological suspense to deliver a knockout story.

Southern Spain. It is in Semana Santa – Holy Week – and the heat is building up in the city. This is always a difficult time for the police, with thousands of visitors adding to thousands of hooded penitents parading elaborate statues through the medieval streets in long processions, the week of prayer culminating in a huge bullfighting fiesta on Easter Sunday. This city is an imaginary one – although it is not unlike Seville – superbly and atmospherically evoked, with Medieval streets and modern slums as well as the fine old houses of the rich and influential, some of whom have secrets going back to the terrible days of the Civil War. When a hideous double murder is discovered on the first day, the men of the force – and visiting female academic, Maria Gutierrez – know they are in for a long week. More murders and the gradual discovery of a chain of corruption spread through the city and its history like cancer, turn the case into a race against time, as all around, the religious carnival gathers its own weird momentum.

We get to know all the characters and all their problems as the oppressive heat and murderous suspense of this strange week builds to a shattering climax – and even then there is a great twist in the tail!

A thriller with its roots in the past, a wonderful mystery, a fabulous evocation of place with great characters, Semana Santa marks the debut of a big name for the 1990s.