Atticus Craftsman never travels without a supply of Earl Grey, an electric kettle and a teacup - so he makes sure he has packed all three after his father, distinguished publisher of Craftsman & Co., sends him to Madrid to shut down a failing literary magazine, Librarte. But when nobody has heard from him in three months, his father knows something must be very wrong.
Do not fear, Inspector Manchego is on the case. No, not the cheese. Manchego, as in the most valiant Don Quijote de la Mancha. Lacking a horse but with plenty of hapless derring-do, Manchego gets to work unravelling the mystery of the quintessential Englishman's disappearance.
But there to block him at every turn are the five fiery and closeknit Spanish women who run Librarte, and who'll do anything to keep their jobs - even if it involves a spot of kidnap, the long-lost poems of Federico García Lorca and a journey that winds through the narrow streets of Madrid and down to the gypsy heart of Andalucía . . .
