In the quiet desert night, a murderer confesses to a Spanish police officer in a remote station just outside of Madrid, Spain. The cold, methodical confession unnerves the unprepared officer. The young American man has no business in this part of Spain but why has he come here to confess and who did he murder? The jarring violence gives way to a far more sinister misdeed as the plot, told in a nonlinear style, unfolds and the true nature of the crime, involving big pharmaceutical executives, a new, revolutionary cancer drug coming to market and hired guns comes to light. One man bent on revenge wrestles with his internal demons and depression as he travels through the streets of Madrid, Northern coastal Spain and Valencia on a quest to put the pieces together in a noir-style, psychological, international crime thriller amidst corporate corruption and the loss of a beloved. Grief and loss are overcome with matter-of-fact violent justice in the vein of Cormac McCarthy against the beautiful backdrop of the enchanting Spanish cities, beaches and countryside. The mystery to be solved awaits.

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, crème 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.

On the eve of the Spanish Civil War murder on the streets of Madrid has become so commonplace that it passes largely unnoticed. for Inspector Paco Ruiz the death of a young woman in Retiro Park has a significance that even he does not fully understand.

Breakfasting daily at a Madrid café where she observes fellow patrons, María Dolz offers condolences to a widow whose husband has been shockingly murdered, an act that leads to a new relationship and disturbing insights into the crime.

For 72 years Louise Devereaux has carried the grim story of an unfortunate woman who was erroneously hanged for a murder she didn't commit. Who was the real murderer? Will Allen Kingsley be able to find witnesses to verify Louise's story? Will he be able to piece together enough evidence to bring justice for the long overdue crime? Why do the people of Madrid (pronounced Mad-rid) treat him with such disdain? Why do they look at his wife with such compassion?

Albuquerque's old Sunshine Theater harbors a deep, dark secret from its vaudeville/silent movie days. But Millie and Andy Milliken don't have a clue when they lease the theater so that Andy's garage band will have a place to play for under-21 audiences. The theater is a mess, but the Millikens manage to clean it up and get it opened. Then they are plagued by a series of near catastrophes: a fire in the balcony is narrowly averted...a huge disc shaped lighting fixture falls from the vaulted ceiling during a grunge show. Fortunately, it lands in the unoccupied balcony rather than the mosh pit so no one is hurt. Millie and Andy are beginning to think someone does not want them to succeed. But Millie suspects someone or something is helping to keep the situation from getting out of hand. She believes the theater may be haunted and that, strange as it may seem, a ghost is acting as a kind of guardian angel. She nicknames the ghost BG for "benevolent ghost," unaware that those initials also stand for Bettina Gaylord, a silent movie star who mysteriously disappeared from the theater in 1928 and was never found. Although Bettina's ghost is unable to prevent a second murder, that of a particularly obnoxious road manager during a big grunge rock show, she does help Millie determine who the killer is. She also leads Millie to her hidden bones. But not before an unarmed Millie faces the killer on the theater's dangerously rickety old wooden fly grid, suspended more than sixty feet above the stage floor.