Red Queen - Juan Gómez-jurado

nPacing of the breakneck variety. Short chapters, funny asides, lethally potent descriptions: They all contribute to a frenetic page-turning momentum... you'll have great fun reading it.

--The New York Times Book Review n nIntroducing Antonia Scott--the most compelling and original detective since Lisbeth Salander--in Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen, the #1 international award-winning bestseller & thriller that has taken the world by storm. n nAntonia Scott--the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother--has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment.

n nJon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao--disgraced, suspended, and about to face criminal charges--is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case. n nThe case is a macabre, ritualistic murder--a teen-aged boy from a wealthy family whose body was found without a drop of blood left in it.

But the murder is just the start. A high-ranking executive and daughter of one of the richest men in Spain is kidnapped, a crime which is tied to the previous murder. Behind them both is a hidden mastermind with even more sinister plans.

And the only person with a chance to see the connections, solve the crimes and successfully match wits with the killer before tragedy strikes again...is Antonia Scott.n