EXTREMA

MORE THAN ONE MILLION READERS AND UNANIMOUS CRITICAL PRAISE

“A novel I loved when I read it, dark and crime-filled, with a very powerful story that has hooked thousands of readers—and I hope now thousands of viewers. [...] Elena Blanco is one of the best female lead characters I’ve seen in a long time, and the Madrid shown, streetwise and violent, gives it great strength.”
Paco Cabezas, director of the series La novia gitana, soon to be released by A3MediaPlayer

“In Madrid, there’s little killing,” the young sub-inspector Ángel Zárate was told by his police mentor; “but when there is killing, it rivals any city in the world,” the inspector Elena Blanco, head of the Case Analysis Brigade, could add. This department was created to solve the most complicated and abject crimes.

Susana Macaya, of gypsy father but raised as paya, disappears after her bachelorette party. Her body is found two days later in the Quinta de Vista Alegre in the Madrid neighborhood of Carabanchel. It could be just another murder, if not for the fact that the victim was tortured following a rare and atrocious ritual, and that her sister Lara suffered the same fate seven years earlier, also on the eve of her wedding. Lara’s killer has been serving a sentence since then, so only two possibilities remain: either someone has imitated his methods to kill the younger sister, or an innocent person is imprisoned.

That is why Commissioner Rentero has decided to remove Zárate from the case and assign it to the veteran Blanco, a peculiar and solitary woman, lover of grappa, karaoke, collector cars, and sexual encounters in SUVs. A vulnerable police officer who stays in the force to avoid forgetting that there is an unresolved case in her life she has not been able to close.

Investigating a person means knowing them, discovering their secrets and contradictions, their story. In the case of Lara and Susana, Elena Blanco must peer into the lives of gypsies who have renounced their customs to integrate into society and those who cannot forgive them for it, lifting every veil to discover who could have taken such cruel revenge on both gypsy brides.

Reviews:
“The pseudonym is a mask like any other, and whoever hides behind it has their reasons. [...] Man or woman, it doesn’t matter. The quality of their novels is proven. And the impact of having no face, too.”
Antonio Lucas, El Mundo

“Crime fiction either goes silent or becomes introspective. Carmen Mola, the mutant writer. The worst thing about her is that you can’t invite her to a festival.”
Carlos Zanón

“Who is Carmen Mola? Does it even matter? Her novels captivate with an originality that subjugates us and makes us want more, much more, when, horrified, we realize we are already on the last page.”
Jordi Llobregat, Director of Valencia Negra

“From the first page, Carmen Mola, whoever she is, shows she has her own voice, and that, in crime fiction and beyond, is already a lot, maybe half of everything. Or more.”
Lorenzo Silva

“The Spanish Elena Ferrante? [...]. A solid structure and a plot carried like a classic crime novel but at the same time breaking several conventions.”
Juan Carlos Galindo, El País