This book can be read forwards or backwards, either from A to Z or from Z to A; thus you will realize that the micro world described in this text is a wheel of fortune and a magical sphere. Fortune is changeable and magic sometimes reverses its spells against us. In whatever way you choose to read these pages, you will find more questions than answers concerning the human zoo described within. The unnatural environment of the cities shows us that men and women are capable of the most admirable, as well as the most horrible behaviours. Here you will find an example of how, under both predictable and unpredictable circumstances, the love of a woman can transform itself into hatred, leading her to commit unthinkable actions.

Originally published as La mujer que llora (Barcelona: Planeta, 2013).

First in the historical mystery series featuring a sophisticated sleuth in Jazz Age Greenwich Village! Everyone who’s anyone in 1920s New York knows Bedford Green. Once a merciless gossip columnist, he has given up the life of sleaze and secrets and decamped for the Village—to open a gritty little art gallery showcasing the most shocking European artists imaginable. The gallery is a money pit, and Green is in debt to some of the roughest loan sharks south of 14th Street, but that doesn’t stop him from looking fabulous or having a good time. He’s happy hanging around Manhattan society—at least until his assistant starts to cry. Sloane is a modern woman, a flapper with a razor-sharp bob and a bulletproof heart, but she’s convinced that her friend Polly Swanscott is in danger. From the speakeasies of the Village to the finest cafes in Paris, Green will do his best to save Polly—and he’ll do it with a cocktail in hand . . . The Weeping Woman is the first book in the Bedford Green Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Author of Legend of the Dead, Coyote Returns, The Shadow Catcher, The Dark Canyon, The Mutes, and The Owl and the Raven San Juan Pueblo—the dead of winter. Police Chief Joseph Aquino has a suspicious drowning—the Director of the Pueblo Art Council. A gallery owner in Santa Fe is implicated . . . as is a local artist. As he digs deeper, Aquino faces mounting opposition from the new Pueblo Sheriff and the Tribal Council. Peeling back the layers of a 300-year-old legend, the police chief’s authority is challenged, his family threatened. In San Phillipe County, children are tormented by a shadow presence. A student is abducted. At a snowbound lodge, a shootout leaves a man dead. Complications mount as Sheriff Cliff Lansing attempts to unravel one clue after another. Tina Morales’ grandmother can only provide guidance from a distance . . . but she knows full well the Evil that Lansing and Morales now face. On the snowy banks of the Rio Grande, a haunting siren sings her melancholy lullaby. Lives are sacrificed. Lives are saved. All the while, The Weeping Woman beckons the living to join her beneath the waters.

A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . Håkan Nesser's astonishingly successful Van Veeteren series continues with the eighth book, The Weeping Girl. Winnie Maas died because she changed her mind . . . A community is left reeling after a teacher – Arnold Maager – is convicted of murdering his female pupil Winnie Maas. It seems the girl had been pregnant with Maager's child. Years later, on her eighteenth birthday, Maager's daughter Mikaela finally learns the terrible truth about her father. Desperate for answers, Mikaela travels to the institution at Lejnice, where Maager has been held since his trial. But soon afterwards she inexplicably vanishes. Detective Inspector Ewa Moreno from the Maardam Police is on holiday in the area when she finds herself drawn into the case of Mikaela's disappearance. But before she can make any headway in the investigation, Maager himself disappears – and then a body is found. It will soon become clear to Ewa that only unravelling the events of the past will unlock this dark mystery . . . The Weeping Girl is followed by book nine in the series, The Strangler's Honeymoon.

Annie S. Swan's magazine.