New York Times: "Petra is developing into a good cop, and her earnest efforts to assert her authority...are worth cheering."

Petra Delicado, the Barcelona police detective in Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s DEATH RITES is so burdened with men and their issues that she’d be lucky to catch a pickpocket, never mind the serial rapist who has been branding his victims to further degrade them. To begin with, she’s still dancing attendance on two ex-husbands, one who constantly humiliates her and one who hangs on her like a child. She also has to contend with a partner who makes no apologies for his sexist prejudices. But Petra’s baggage is pretty much the point in this series, which retains a sardonic edge in Jonathan Dunne’s translation. For the record: Petra is developing into a good cop, and her earnest efforts to assert her authority (“What I had to do was get used to being fierce”) are worth cheering.