A master crime writer trains every weapon in his arsenal on a crime against humanity. In 1980s El Salvador, a young woman is detained in a government torture squad’s head-quarters, suspected of supporting guerilla forces. There, a bookish new recruit, Victor Peña, is assigned to assist in her interrogation. Before they learn so much as her name—Lorca—the squad relentlessly break her, body and soul. It is a terrifying journey into human cruelty and courage, one which years later—in the pinnacle of cosmopolitan America—still haunts the tormentor as dramatically as it does his victim.
A master crime writer trains every weapon in his arsenal on a crime against humanity.
A literary novel that treads fearlessly into one of recent history's most shocking moral crucibles.
In 1980s El Salvador, a young woman is detained in a government torture squad's head-quarters, suspected of supporting guerilla forces. There, a bookish new recruit, Victor Peña, is assigned to assist in her interrogation. Before they learn so much as her name - Lorca - the squad relentlessly break her, body and soul. It is a terrifying journey into human cruelty and courage, one which years later - in the pinnacle of cosmopolitan America - still haunts the tormentor as dramatically as it does his victim.
"An utterly vivid, completely disturbing account of how thugs with authority unrestrained by the rule of law and untempered by the quality of mercy can go about the physical, mental and emotional destruction of a person."
— The Gazette
"Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon."
— Jonathan Kellerman, The New York Times bestselling author of Capital Crimes
"A tour de force, sorrowing and direct, sharp as a knife blade, beautifully written — an unforgettable window into the human capacity for cruelty and courage."
—
The Globe and Mail 
