RUIZ ZAFON CARL
"Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. It is twenty years later. Tired of her work as investigator for Spain's secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to quit. At the insistence of her boss, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain's Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue - a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls' office in his Madrid mansion. As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Now Alicia's life is in danger." -
