Behind a Top Female Name in Spanish Crime Fiction: Three Men
The New York Times
Carmen Mola, a novelist publishing under a pen name, seemed to shatter a glass ceiling in the world of Spanish books. But when the author’s true identity was revealed while claiming a big prize, it was a shock.
MADRID — In a literary world long crowded with successful men, some held up the popularity of Carmen Mola as an example that times were changing in Spain.
Publishing under a pseudonym, the writer produced a detective trilogy with an eccentric female police inspector as the protagonist, plumbing the underworld for clues to crimes. The public was led to believe Carmen Mola was a married, female professor who lived in Madrid, but knew little else.
The mysteries, both within the plots of the novels and surrounding the author’s identity, were a recipe for success, selling hundreds of thousands of books in the Spanish-speaking world. But the greatest surprise of all came this month during a ceremony attended by the Spanish king where Carmen Mola was awarded the Planeta Prize, a literary award worth more than a million dollars.
