I've just added a new-to-me Spanish author to the Euro Crime database.
Telegram Books appear to be translating Eduardo Mendoza's trilogy about a detective in a mental asylum:
The Mystery of the Enchanted Crypt was published in October 2008 and the follow-up,
The Olive Labyrinth, is scheduled for October 2011.
Released from an asylum to help with a police enquiry, the quick–witted and foul–smelling narrator delves deep into the underworld of 1970s Barcelona to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl from a convent school.Helped only by his ageing prostitute sister and the voluptuous nymphomaniac, Mercedes, the narrator's investigations take him deeper into a mystery involving murdered sailors, suicidal daughters, a web of organised crime and a secret, underground crypt.
Our hero, Gonewiththewind, has once again been released by the police from a lunatic asylum in Barcelona. The last time he helped solve the mystery of an enchanted crypt and a missing girl, only to find himself once more incarcerated. This time his mission is to recover a briefcase filled with money lost under very peculiar circumstances …Mysteries and mishaps follow each other at breakneck speed, as the hapless detective delves beyond humour and the absurd to the frontiers of the truly surreal.A brilliant send-up of the detective genre and of Spanish society, The Olive Labyrinth promises to have you in stitches.
Both titles are translated by Nick Caistor.