AN ENIGMATIC YOUNG GIRL MURDERED YEARS EARLIER

As delivery of the manuscript draws closer, Oliver Brun, a young writer and art history researcher who, after winning a major literary award, fears that he will not live up to expectations with his second novel, feels less and less inspired. Nothing seems to break his writer’s block, till one day, at the house of his teacher and mentor, David Sender, he comes upon a secret: the enigmatic photographs of a young woman and a portrait of her posing as the Mona Lisa.

A LEGENDARY PAINTING IN THE PRADO MUSEUM

A few days later, in the town where David Sender lives in the Madrid Mountains, bones appear in the lake. Evidence confirms that they belong to Melisa Nierga, the young woman in the photographs, and the teacher is immediately detained by the police. Oliver suddenly realizes that he not only has before him the great story he was waiting for, but also a chilling mystery: could the man who has taught him everything be a murderer?

CAN A MURDER BECOME A WORK OF ART?

Oliver turns to his college classmate, Nora, to help him unravel the mystery. Together they will come upon some writings in Latin that could link the girl’s murder with one of the most beautiful paintings ever painted, the portrait known as “the Prado’s Mona Lisa”.
In this fascinating novel, Alejandro Corral combines the research of some of the best kept secrets in the History of Art with a fast-paced thriller that seizes the reader from the first line.