El buen padre / The Good Father

A man is found covered in blood beside his wife's corpse in a Madrid home, a knife bearing his fingerprints at the scene, and is convicted of her murder.

A year later, his elderly father walks into a police station and confesses to a different crime: kidnapping the three people he blames for his son's conviction — the defense lawyer, the judge, and the young witness who testified against him.

Convinced all three were bribed to frame an innocent man, he promises to kill one hostage a week until the real killer is caught and his son released.

The case falls to Inspector Indira Ramos, a homicide detective known for an unbending ethical code and a debilitating phobia of germs. With three weeks on the clock before the first execution, she has to work out whether the original conviction was sound at all — and find three hostages before the father makes good on his threat.

Published in Spain by Reservoir Books (Roja y Negra) in 2021, El buen padre is the opening novel in Santiago Díaz's Inspector Indira Ramos series, followed by Las otras niñas (2022) and Indira (2023).