The Dead Girls

Serafina wanted a large-size pistol, even if it meant having to hold it with her two hands to fire it, even if the kick would almost wrench it out of her grip, even if the bullet, on entering through the victim's chest, would tear a great hole in his back. Opening with a crime of passion after a years-long love affair has soured, The Dead Girls soon plunges into an investigation of something even darker: Serafina Baladro and her sister run a successful brothel business in a small town, so successful that they begin to expand. But when business starts to falter, life in the brothel turns ugly, and slowly, girls start disappearing . . . Based on real events, the story of serial-killing brothel owners Delfina and María de Jesús González, whose crimes were uncovered in 1964, The Dead Girls is a deliciously satirical black comedy - a potent blend of sex and mayhem. Written in the laconic tones of a police report, it cleverly uncovers the hopeless pedantry of a broken justice system, and the dark world of prostitution - the oldest profession of all. 'Cynical madams, corrupt soldiers, cheapjack politicians, violent crimes, bodies in the back yard . . . The Dead Girls is a startlingly good book by an author of genuine, exciting originality' Salman Rushdie