Bloody Accusation

In the harsh winter of 1620, a terrible double murder spreads panic in Madrid: the bodies of a young woman and a child, whose heart has been cut out, are found. City gossipers soon name the respectable and outrageously decent notary Sebastián Castro as the criminal. The murderer, who has turned all of Madrid against the innocent, roams free, while Castro, who carelessly witnessed the will of a very conscientious aristocrat, has no idea what he risks. It only takes one denunciation from a narrow-minded and frightened townsman – and several lives are shattered into pieces.

However, Castro's children manage to escape: thirteen-year-old Alonso, who was carefree just yesterday, finds himself on the streets with his infant brother in his arms, facing hunger, cold, and arrest. From now on, his entire life is dedicated to a single goal – to save his parents from the Inquisition. And he is helped by friends – just as homeless and with the same fire in their hearts.

Sandra Asa worked as a lawyer for many years but left her practice for her dream of a writing career. Her debut "Bloody Accusation," the first part of a duology, is an exciting adventure thriller with elements of noir, courtroom procedural, and even picaresque novel, worthy of both Alexandre Dumas and Arturo Pérez-Reverte – it instantly became a cult classic in Spain. Serial murders, the entire underbelly of the Inquisition, a family destroyed by prejudice, revenge and justice, rapid maturation and the search for one’s path – before us is the perfect historical novel, and we have never seen such a golden age before.