Awards
2003 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Rebecca Pawel:"Pawel anchors a tense and exciting story with a terrific and complex plot."-Detroit Free Press
"[Pawel] turns the clock back to 1939 and Madrid's tumultuous past. . . . An intriguing juxtaposition of the political and the personal."-Kirkus Reviews
"An intriguing tale amid the gloom of war-torn Madrid. It is a humane and moving portrait of a divided people coming to grips with the virtues of enemies and the villainy of friends."-Dan Fesperman
Madrid 1939. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Len is a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil, a rank rare for a man not yet thirty, but Tejada is an unusual recruit. The bitter civil war between the Nationalists and the Republicans has interrupted his legal studies in Salamanca. Second son of a conservative Southern family of landowners, he is an enthusiast for the Catholic Franquista cause, a dedicated, and now triumphant, Nationalist.
This war has drawn international attention. In a dress rehearsal for World War II, fascists support the Nationalists, while communists have come to the aid of the Republicans. Atrocities have devastated both sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that Tejada finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo, shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman caught kneeling over the body is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused, he cannot help seeking justice.
Review
"Stirring...[A] novel that easily transcends the formulaic crime story." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"An intriguing juxtaposition of the politcal and the personal." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Taut and gripping. Death of a Nationalist captures civil war-weary Madrid, from the bomb-blackened buildings to the eerie deserted Metro. Pawel paints the sights, sounds, and hunger of the city with a raw, insightful brush wonderful and rare in a first novel." Cara Black, author of Murder in the Marais
Review
"With prose as straightforward as an officer's salute, Rebecca Pawel weaves an intriguing tale amid the gloom of war-torn Madrid. It is a humane and moving portrait of a divided people coming to grips with the virtues of enemies and the villainy of friends." Dan Fesperman, Lie in the Dark
Synopsis
Madrid 1938. Sergeant Carlos Tejada y Leon of Spain's Guardia Civil is a loyal Falangist and a staunch Nationalist. When his best friend, also a guardia, is found dead on Calle Amor de Dios, a woman crouched over the body, he suspects she is responsible. Her execution sets off a chain of events that will change him forever.
Synopsis
Madrid 1939. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Le n is a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil, a rank rare for a man not yet thirty, but Tejada is an unusual recruit. The bitter civil war between the Nationalists and the Republicans has interrupted his legal studies in Salamanca. Second son of a conservative Southern family of landowners, he is an enthusiast for the Catholic Franquista cause, a dedicated, and now triumphant, Nationalist.
This war has drawn international attention. In a dress rehearsal for World War II, fascists support the Nationalists, while communists have come to the aid of the Republicans. Atrocities have devastated both sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that Tejada finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo, shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman caught kneeling over the body is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused, he cannot help seeking justice.
Synopsis
Madrid, 1939. Carlos Tejada Alonso y Léon is a sergeant in the Guardia Civil, a rank rare for a man not yet thirty, but Tejada is an unusual recruit. A former law student and second son of a conservative southern family of landowners, he is an enthusiast for the Catholic Franquista cause, a dedicated, and now triumphant, Nationalist.
This war has drawn international attention. In a dress rehearsal for World War II, fascists support the Nationalists, while Communists have come to the aid of the Republicans. Atrocities have devastated both sides. It is at this moment, when the Republicans have surrendered, and the Guardia Civil has begun to impose order in the ruins of Madrid, that Tejada finds the body of his best friend, a hero of the siege of Toledo, shot to death on a street named Amor de Dios. Naturally, a Red is suspected. And it is easy for Tejada to assume that the woman wearing a red scarf, caught kneeling over the body, is the killer. But when his doubts are aroused, he cannot help seeking justice.
Synopsis
The first in a series featuring Carlos Tejada set in post-Civil War Spain
About the Author
Rebecca Pawel is twenty-five years old. She lives in New York City and teaches Spanish in a Brooklyn high school.