In the city of Granada, Spain, bastion of the Conservative Catholic aristocracy, fear of the Red menace remains strong in 1945. One rich, elderly lady summons the police to her home almost once a week, sure Communists are plotting against her. She changes her will almost as often. When she is found dead, the long-suffering police can’t believe that she really may have been murdered. But as her latest will has vanished, the death must be investigated.

Influence is exerted to have Lieutenant Carlos Tejada Alonso y Léon transferred temporarily from Potes, in the northern mountains, to take charge because the old lady is his grandaunt. And one of the chief suspects is his father. The family expects Tejada to exonerate its members, but Tejada is a man who puts duty first.




Rebecca Pawel is 29, lives in New York City and teaches Spanish and English in a Brooklyn high school. She is the author of Death of a Nationalist, Law of Return, and The Watcher in the Pine. Rebecca frequently travels to Spain.

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