OPERACION GLADIO

When the 1977 Atocha Massacre in Madrid killed five people who were members of the Workers' Commission trade union, which had links to Spain's Communist Party, the secrets that lay behind the murders were never revealed. But when the novel's protagonist, the journalist Alicia Durán, conducts a series of interviews with key people from this volatile period of Spain's transition from fascism to democracy she discovers another version to the official story. And all this information eventually leads her into a web of government dark secrets that threaten her life. Fusing reality and fiction, the novel's title refers to the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Operación Gladio was the name used for anti-communist organizations that operated around the globe whose mission was to stop communism from reaching political power. While Durán probes further and further, other characters such as Juan Urbano from Prados'most recent novel, Mala gente que camina (Bad Persons Who Walk), also add to the suspense. Other head strong and entertaining female characters, such as an archaeologist and a judge, add moments of lighthearted relief to the tense plotline as they search for the remains of a man with Communist ties who disappeared in 1940, and who printed magazines where Pablo Neruda and Miguel Hernández contributed their writings to.

Who was really behind all the killings? What role did Italy or the CIA play? Prado's daring novel ask all these questions while taking a critical look at the cold-blooded murders that back then everyone was too scared to face, but that today, he's staring down without fear.