Almuzara 2007

WINNER OF THE II CIUDAD DE CARMONA INTERNATIONAL CRIME NOVEL AWARD

A former police officer breaks his own promise not to answer the phone after midnight. A friend in trouble summons him three hundred kilometers from Buenos Aires. Racing down the highway, while soothing his soul with some good jazz, Pablo Martelli hopes to arrive on time.

Meanwhile, Argentina once again stages the comic opera of its own shipwreck: a weak government, an ailing and unhinged society, an absurd president, and Argentinians scrambling for lifeboats.

Needless to say, no one arrives on time. Neither Martelli to his friend’s call, nor certain conspirators fleeing toward a future that has already passed. By the end of the adventure, the Argentine president and a serial killer—both family men—may have lost their jobs.

Martelli loses little more. Though at one point, he believes he has reached paradise.

Rights sold in English (MacLehose Press), French (Denöel), and German (DTV).