Santana Series

3. Cuentas pendientes, by Susana Hernández.

Deputy Inspector Rebeca Santana’s life may not be so different from ours. Like anyone, she sometimes has problems with her partner and friends, as well as conflicts at work. But Santana grew up in Carmelo, a working-class Barcelona neighbourhood, and carries a painful past she cannot—and does not want to—forget. It has taken a heavy toll on her relationship with her parents and those closest to her. As Santana and her colleague Miriam Vázquez try to dismantle a child-trafficking network, they reopen old cases thought to be closed, while demons from the past and present disrupt their lives. To make matters worse, a killer who once escaped Santana appears to have returned to Barcelona, and her mother, recently released from prison, is kidnapped. Meanwhile, her partner Malena, now a prosecutor, is handling a highly sensitive case with personal repercussions. In this third installment, following Curvas peligrosas and Contra las cuerdas, readers will find a new case—or rather, several—and a more human Santana, whose past and relationship with Malena, the love of her life, come into view. With each novel, Rebeca Santana becomes an increasingly important character in Spanish crime fiction. Susana Hernández is no emerging promise: she is an established voice in the genre.

2. Contra las cuerdas, by Susana Hernández.

‘Contra las cuerdas’ is a new installment of the series started with Curvas peligrosas (Odisea Editorial 2010) and starring sub-inspectors Rebeca Santana and Miriam Vázquez.

Santana and Vázquez face a serial rapist and murderer who operates on the Costa Dorada and the city of Barcelona. The killer’s sixth victim is someone from Santana’s closest environment. 

The complexity of the case, its emotional implications and the desperate race to save a loved one are not the only obstacles that the sub-inspector must overcome. Sentimental conflicts, a mysterious stalker and an unexpected turn in the complicated relationship with her mother will corner Santana against the ropes. 

Humor, action, mystery and personal adventures of the protagonists form the freshness of this new installment.

1. Curvas peligrosas, by Susana Hernández.

One rainy morning, the body of a young woman with Down syndrome appears inside a container near Tibidabo. The veteran sub-inspector Míriam Vázquez, nicknamed La Marquesa for her impeccable way of dressing, haughty and with a lot of character, and the recently incorporated sub-inspector Rebeca Santana, about to enter her thirties, with a degree in criminology and psychology, whose traumatic past continues to haunt her, have in “Curvas peligrosas” a common objective: the capture of a murderer who has already claimed two victims in the city of Barcelona, both disabled women.
Throughout the novel, the reader will immerse themselves in the environment of the police station and the course of the investigation and also in the family, social and emotional environment of both police officers, and will discover the turbulent relationship that Santana had with her mother and the reasons why her mother is imprisoned.
“Curvas peligrosas” is a very notable novel that marked the debut of a promising and original police couple and the beginning of a series of novels, three so far (“Curvas peligrosas”, “Contra las cuerdas” and “Cuentas pendientes”) starring Rebeca Santana and her partner Miriam Vázquez that show that there are still many aspects in which to innovate in a genre in which – as some say – everything is invented.

Santana Series Playlist

If you want to listen to the songs that appear in the three books in the series.

• Curvas peligrosas
• Contra las cuerdas
• Cuentas pendientes