I’m excited about this week’s blog because Malenka Ramos is back: an author who is making a niche for herself in horror, a difficult genre. In being a woman, she has yet another obstacle to overcome. Publishing legends say that horror does not sell, but on the other hand we have the great master Stephen King, who publishes bestsellers just as popular as horror movies. Why is it difficult for Spanish authors to position themselves in this genre? I don’t know the answer–perhaps readers have it, but Malenka was given the title of the “Spanish Stephen King”, and although comparisons are really only sales labels, it helped us to gain that niche in the world of literary horror. It’s a niche we don’t want to lose, and I am sure that with this novel, not only will we not lose it but we will gain space, because LOS CRIMENES DE HAMLET is a horror novel with supernatural overtones that grabs you from beginning to end.

At the age of seventy, Hamlet, the famous serial killer, spends his days immersed in the dark dream of once again painting the disturbing scenes that keep the police awake at night. He has been held in a maximum security prison for twenty years, but despite this, a new corpse with his unmistakable signature has appeared in the quiet and secluded valley of Caín. The event has awakened the Cutter, a diabolical and bloodthirsty being who, according to popular belief, only lived in old legends. Until now. The Carver and his entourage have come to the call of blood and claim their domain in the forest with their particular signature: he cuts off arms and legs. Hamlet and the oldest woman in the town are the only people who can help the police unravel the case.

We have all the ingredients to get you hooked on this novel. For horror lovers it is perfect, it will not disappoint, and for those of us who are not, it will keep us in suspense, and also, from time to time, we will have to stop and breathe, because the tension is at its maximum. Malenka gets what she wants: the reader is in the state that makes any little noise a jumpscare. If this novel were directed by Bayona and starred Belén Rueda, it would be top of the billboards, so I hope readers help us to put it at the top of the lists, because it is pure entertainment.