Even the Darkest Night

A Terra Alta Investigation. Winner of Spain's biggest literary prize - the Premio Planeta

Two dead at the Adell house . . .

But nothing in the duty’s officer’s laconic report can prepare Melchor Marín for what he finds. An elderly couple, tortured to death in the most horrific, almost ritualistic manner. A printing magnate and his wife, the richest clan in the region, with all the petty festering enmities that entails. And, instantly, the backwater town of Terra Alta, Catalonia, is 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, before falling in love and settling down. And, before that, he was jailed for his role as driver for a Colombian drug cartel, his decision to become a police officer inspired by his mother’s murder and a copy of Les Misérables borrowed from the prison library.

Gradually, the leads in the Adell case dry up, and Melchor is ordered to drop his investigation. He persists, willing to sacrifice his reputation and career in a ruthless pursuit of the truth, but with dusk about to fall on darkest night of his life, he will pay a tragic price for his tenacity.

Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean