One of three men narrates this noirish thriller and tells you that one of them is about to set out to kill a woman called Laura Salinas. You will not know which of the three is the narrator or if that man is also the killer-to-be until the final reveal at the end of the book. To avoid giving clues of the identity(ies) of either the narrator tells his tale in the third person. He then takes us back to the beginning and how events conspired to drive a man to murder.

The three men are Alcaen Sanchez, an unassuming insurance clerk, Iker Orbaiz, would-be novelist and obituary writer, and Angel Biedma, doctor and would-be patron to the writer. This trio meet regularly in a bar and when Angel advises Iker to use their other friend as a model for a character in his novel it seems to fit perfectly. So they try to dissect his life without Alcaen realising what they're trying to accomplish. This is where they here of Laura Salinas, an estate agent that showed Alcaen around a house that he couldn't afford. He admits that this is something he will do at times to amuse himself, dress and act as a rich man and view properties that are well beyond his means. Meeting Laura, Alcaen immediately falls in love and is overjoyed when she agrees to lunch on the pretext of discussing the house he's just visited. He's even more ecstatic when she agrees to a proper date but when he admits to the truth he is equally devastated when she walks away from him. He'd almost robbed the insurance firm where he works just to get the money to please her but in the end couldn't go through with his plan. Laura re-appears in his life once again and tells him that things might be different but that she is afraid of her abusive husband and if only he was out of the way then who knows what might happen between them. How far will Alcaen go for his obsession? Will Iker write his story now that his muse is treading a darker path and what have the promptings of Angel got to do with it all?

Although this is a short novel it starts out quite uninteresting and slow while the scene is set. Only from the middle onwards does this change and events head towards the ending and you rush through the rest of the story at break-neck speed. There are quite a few twists before the final word is written but I'll let you discover these for yourself should you decide to give this book a read. ( )

This is a smart little psychological thriller by a Spanish writer.While it has it's flaws, it is a dark tale of obsession.Three men have a friendship of sorts, they meet most nights to drink at a local bar and play mind games. At the beginning of the book, the reader is told that one of these three men is setting out on a dark night to kill a young woman. Which one and why? The reader is left to figure that out as the story is told. ( )