Chicago restaurateur Elso Bari specializes in locating those who don’t want to be found, but in the shadowy worlds of private security and organized crime, it can be hard to distinguish the hunters from the hunted
Elso Bari runs a restaurant in Chicago, and a sideline in private investigation. A stylish connoisseur of fine wines and gourmet cuisine, he’s also no stranger to the seedier side of city life. His debt to a powerful organization obliges him to investigate the suspicious death of one of its employees, a man with ties to international art trafficking. The trail leads Elso to Barcelona, where he becomes entangled in the hunt for a female contract killer who uses sex as a weapon—and is too smart to be tracked down by just anybody. Elso is comfortable moving in the shadows, but the deeper he delves into the criminal underworld, the harder it is to know whom he’s working for and whom he’s seeking, let alone why. Award-winning author David C. Hall navigates the murky waters of morality and transports the hard-boiled American thriller to the Mediterranean, giving a cosmopolitan twist to this action-packed tale of murder, sex, and betrayal.
David C. Hall (b. 1943) grew up in the Midwest and lived in different parts of the United States—working jobs that ranged from the Forest Service in the Oregon woods to cooking pancakes in Seattle—before arriving in Barcelona in 1974. In Spain, he became involved in the surge of political activity in opposition to the Franco regime. He worked as an English teacher and later as a translator, and was active for several years as a trade unionist. His first crime novel, written in English, was published in Spanish as Cuatro días (Four Days) in 1984. Billete de vuelta (1990) appeared in the United States in 1992 as Return Trip Ticket. Hall won the Semana Negra short story prize in 1991 and the Pou de la Neu short story prize in 2008. His latest novel, Barcelona skyline, won the 2011 City of Getafe Crime Novel Prize.