The Summer Snow

By Rebecca Pawel

Praise for the Carlos Tejada Alonso y León series:

“Rebecca Pawel [has] set the mystery world agog.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post Book World

“The best new mystery author to come around in a long time . . . an astonishing achievement in writing and psychological development . . . she knows how to make a reader care. Her books are intense, the writing impeccable. She propels the plot at a riveting pace. What a pleasure it is to find Ms. Pawel—a major new voice.”—Marietta Dunn, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“[Pawel] frames the difficult and moral questions of the era in the lives of her fascinating characters, bringing history alive.”—Rocky Mountain News

“What distinguishes her among other writers of the genre is her intelligent re-creation of the time period and her ability to get into the minds of the fascist characters.”—Alan Cheuse, The Dallas Morning News

“Wonderful. . . . Pawel resists easy solutions to historically difficult problems.”—Chicago Tribune

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 Lieutenant 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 lady 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 Hardcover edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781569477786

Rebecca Pawel

Rebecca Pawel lives in New York City and is pursuing a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her widely praised first novel, Death of a Nationalist, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, as well as named a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and Detroit Free Press.

Reviews for The Summer Snow

[auntieknickers · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Word is that this is the last in the series of four books about a Spanish fascist policeman in the early post-Civil War period (the Spanish one that is) and his much more liberal wife. It's a pity if so, they are all excellent books. I do feel it was not quite up to the standard of the first three; however, meeting the protagonist's aristocratic family alone is worth the reading.

[agingcow2345 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth book in the series and they get better book by book. It is still basically a period piece but the mystery actually isn't quite obvious until the very end after which our chief protagonist still has one more surprise. However the author nails the class structures and the way the wheels grind in a police bureaucracy.

[kateashenden · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We are doing this book for my book group. A satisfying mystery exploring life in post civil war Spain.