Cercas, J: Lord of All the Dead

"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 Marin from the first page to the last.

Highly recommended" M W CravenTwo dead at the Adell house . . .

But nothing in the duty officer's report can prepare Melchor Marin 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 TerraAlta, 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, beforethat, he was jailed for his role as driver for a Colombian drug cartel, his decision to join the police inspired by adesire to avenge his mother's murder and a copy of Les Miserables 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