Dickens & Clot Investigations Ltd, a detective agency in a waterlogged, semi-buried Madrid of the near future, has a couple of unusual specialities: helping distraught authors and taking on Manex Chopeitia. The authors are frantically in search of characters who've quit the page and assumed a life of their own; Manex Chopeitia is the legendary Big Brother of the genetic-engineering company that rules over both the capital and the destiny of the US-Iberian Federation. With the help of a cowboy sidekick, on the loose from an unfinished manuscript, Carlos Clot is on a personal quest to put some dodgy people in their place.

"[Rafael] Reig delights in keeping his readers on their toes. For such a brief book—it can be read in one afternoon—it covers a lot of ground, and all of the elements come together at the end. Reig is playing around in A Pretty Face—and inviting his readers to play along."— NPR.org “A wonderfully absurd little existential novel.”— The Independent on Sunday “Rafael Reig’s manic inventiveness appears to know no bounds... Enjoy the humour and intellectual breadth.”— The Times (London) Children’s author Lola Eguibar is dead. With the help of her teenage character Benito, she sets out to investigate her own murder. Set in a surreal Spain that is part of the United States, where everyone speaks Anglo and the world has exhausted its supply of oil, this is a remarkable blend of crime, science fiction, and satire. Rafael Reig was born in 1963. He lives in Madrid, where he combines university teaching with his writing activities.

Laura Gamazo, hija de un próspero empresario, muere por envenenamiento el día de su boda en el Ritz. Su padre, Perico Gamazo, recurre a Antonio Menéndez Vigil, agente de inteligencia retirado y protegido suyo, para que aclare el caso con la colaboración del detective Carlos Clot. Menéndez, que inicia su investigación pendiente de los partidos de la selección española en la Eurocopa de 2008, sabe que Laura es la última descendiente de una familia poderosa que conoce bien, y no puede evitar hacer el recuento de setenta años de historia reciente: desde el padre de Perico, Gonzalo Gamazo, marqués de Morcuera, que forjó su círculo de amigos en las cárceles republicanas, en plena guerra civil, hasta sus descendientes, Laura y su hermano Ignacio, hijos de la Transición. Las pesquisas policiales, en busca de intereses o culpas, acaban entreverándose necesariamente con la historia de una familia emblemática de quienes ganaron la guerra y se aseguraron de que sus hijos ganaran también la paz.