At a meeting of the central committee of Spain's Communist Party, in a room both locked and guarded, general secretary Fernando Garrido is stabbed to death. But the Party refuses to believe it
was an inside job.
They turn to former member Pepe Carvalho. But he's soon out of his depth in unfamiliar Madrid, where he spends nearly as much time investigating the chorizo, lamb-kidneys, and tripe, and the
uninspiring selection of wine on offer, as he does murder.
With time out for his signature book burning (Engels's The Housing Question), cooking (shellfish risotto), and an ill-advised bajativo (cognac, cr癡me de menthe) inspired romp with
Gladys, Pepe Carvalho leads a wry and cynical tour through the labyrinth of post-Fascist Spanish politics amid violent jostling for power.
