Death Rites. This item is unavailable.Death Rites

Book One of the Petra Delicado series

Tough, sexy, at times apparently pitiless, Petra Delicado is a new kind of cop in Spanish crime writing. As she battles with sexist colleagues, ruthless reporters, indifferent witnesses, and hardened criminals, she sometimes thinks her thirst for new challenges and perpetual change is more trouble than it’s worth.

Inspector Delicado has been chained to a tiresome desk job in the documentation department of the Barcelona police force for months. But things are about to change. The department is short-handed and there’s a serial rapist on the loose. Delicado is partnered with the portly and impossibly compliant Sergeant Fermín Garzón with orders to solve the case before it succeeds in ruining the good name of the Barcelona police force. However, the only lead they have is the rapist’s mysterious signature: a circular mark of unknown origins he leaves on his victims’ forearms. No witnesses, no other leads, and no help from the victims themselves. To further complicate her life, Inspector Delicado is dealing with two ex-husbands, the belittling Hugo and incompetent Pepe.

From the winner of the Feminino Lumen Prize for best female writer in Spain comes this gripping and entertaining book in the Petra Delicado series which was widely enjoyed by Spanish-language readers.

Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett was born in Almansa, Spain, in 1951 and has lived in Barcelona since 1975. Her Petra Delicado series quickly turned her into one of Spain's most popular and best-loved crime writers. In 1997, she was awarded the Femenino Lumen prize for the best female writer in Spain, and in 2006 she received the Baccante literary award.