The Summer Snow

A "beguiling" novel of murder, politics, and family in fascist Spain, from an Edgar Award–winning author (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

In the southern city of Granada, Spain, bastion of the conservative Catholic aristocracy, fear of the Red Menace is still strong in 1945. One rich, arrogant, elderly lady summons the police to her home almost once a week; she is sure Communists are plotting against her. She changes her will almost as often. When she is found dead, the long-suffering local 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 Lt. Carlos Tejada Alonso y León transferred temporarily from Potes, in the northern mountains where he has been stationed, to take charge—because the rich old woman is his grand aunt Rosalia, 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 . . .

From the author of Death of a Nationalist—a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist that was named a best book of the year by the Chicago Tribune and Detroit Free Press—The Summer Snow is "a triumph of characterization, suspense and atmosphere . . . [that] will richly reward lovers of both mysteries and mainstream literary fiction" (Publishers Weekly, starred review)