This essay collection examines the changing cultural, political and physical landscape of Spain as represented in Spanish crime fiction of the last three decades. The first several essays focus on crime fiction set in Barcelona and look at, among other topics, the symbiotic relationship between the city and the detective in Francisco González Ledesma’s long-running Inspector Méndez series, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s treatments of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and place and identity in Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s Petra Delicado series. Other essays examine regional and cultural illiteracy in Jorge Martínez Reverte’s Gálvez series and Spain’s changing urban centers as represented in Andreu Martin’s El blues de la semana más negra.

Renée W. Craig-Odders is professor of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. The author of several articles and books on Spanish detective fiction, she lives in Plover, Wisconsin.
Jacky Collins is a senior lecturer in Spanish Studies at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Edited by Renée W. Craig-Odders and Jacky Collins
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 242
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4157-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5447-1
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction
Renée W. Craig-Odders      1

1. Detecting 1979 Barcelona: The Cases versus the Context in El misterio de la cripta embrujada, Los mares del Sur, and A la vejez navajazos
Kalen R. Oswald      11
2. Barcelona: “La gran novela negra” in Francisco González Ledesma’s Inspector Méndez Series
Renée W. Craig-Odders      34
3. Barcelona Through the Tourist’s Gaze: The 1992 Olympics as a Pseudo-Event in Two Novels by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Michelle Dumais      53
4. There’s No Place Like Homelessness in Alicia Giménez Bartlett’s Un barco cargado de arroz
Nina L. Molinaro      74
5. After Eden: Images of the Garden in Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s Petra Delicado Series
Marcie Paul      93
6. “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us (?)”: Regional and Social Tensions in Two Novels by Lola van Guardia/Isabel Franc
Jacky Collins      118
7. Spanish Crime Fiction and Madrid: Moving Up, Looking Back
David Knutson      133
8. Remembering Madrid in the Fiction of Joaquín Leguina and Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Anne L. Walsh      146
9. Urban Renewal and Mobbing Inmobilario in Andreu Martín’s El blues de la semana más negra
Tiffany Gagliardi Trotman      166
10. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Regional and Cultural Illiteracy in Two of Jorge Martínez Reverte’s Gálvez Series Novels
Jeffrey Oxford      185
11. Woman on the Road: A New Look at Bilbao’s Urban Landscape in Itxaro Borda’s Ezpeldoi Series
Javier Cillero Goiriastuena      204

About the Contributors      227
Index      231