La puerta pintada

1949. The appearance of a corpse by the river is about to upset the lives of the inhabitants of Puente Real, a quiet post-war provincial town. It is just the first in a series of strange crimes that will forever change the life of Don Manuel, the forensic doctor in charge of the investigation. Year 1936. The Civil War has broken out. In spite of themselves, the life of Salvador, a sympathetic printer of the left, and that of his wife Teresa, a teacher at a school in the Republic, are inexorably dragged towards tragedy and death. The protagonists of these two moments weave from masterfully a story that is itself a thriller, but also a costumbrista novel that portrays the closed postwar society, without avoiding the stark drama of the Civil War and the subsequent repression. It also has elements typical of a Gothic novel, such as the main setting where the plot unfolds, the Puente Real cathedral, the bell-ringer's house located on its roof and, above all, its magnificent Puerta del Judicio, in which Dramatically carved in stone, the punishments awaiting sinners are revealed. In the midst of all this, an improbable love story ends up breaking through to lead us to the final outcome