There is an urban legend that says that literary agents like to read everything. However, I would say that it is exactly the opposite, because as time goes by you have read so much that you become very picky, and it becomes increasingly difficult to like something one hundred percent – at least for me. Sometimes it even makes me angry because this level of demand is mostly imposed by extra-literary reasons that make reading always professional, and you always find yourself reading with a critical eye. On the other hand, what this profession does give you is intuition, and you know perfectly well when you are in front of a text that moves you, that doesn’t leave you indifferent, that traps you and makes you look for any time to read because that’s what you like and because you are in front of a perfect text. And that is exactly what has happened to me with Clara Peñalver, a new author in the agency, but not in the profession.
 
Her new and haunting thriller, LA IMPORTANCIA DE TU NOMBRE trapped me in such a way that I enjoyed this genre, which is not usually what I like the most or what I would choose to read in my free time. And when this happens, many of you who are readers, and read this blog, will know that it is an inexplicable and very comforting feeling. Waiting to see what happens until the end, but at the same time not wanting that book to end that has you hooked and makes you enjoy those moments that are just for you. An incomparable pleasure, that’s what reading is, and that’s what Clara has achieved with this novel.
 
This disturbing thriller has a brutal premise: the life of a renowned therapist explodes when she finds herself trapped in the macabre psychological game of a stranger. Elena Maldonado, a prestigious psychologist in the Salamanca neighbourhood, receives a message in which someone claims they are going to murder one of her patients and that she will have to decide which one and how he should die. At first it seems like a bad joke, but she soon discovers that her anonymous puppeteer knows all her secrets and that, if she doesn’t follow the rules of the game, her daughter will be in danger. The good news is that Elena knows how people’s minds work. The bad news is that her stalker’s cruelty seems to be totally inhuman. Who are they and where does all this hate come from? How long has she known them? Is she unknowingly sharing her daily life with a sadistic killer?
 
It’s been a long time since I’ve been captivated by a thriller like this, and the truth is that I can’t stop recommending this novel to those who like mystery, intelligent and surprising twists in a text where you never know what’s going to happen. It keeps you in tension until the last page. You will be suspicious even of yourself. And that can only be done by a good writer like Clara, who deserves, with this thriller, to be recognised as one of the best authors of the genre.