The Distant Land of the Ponds

This gripping police thriller, set in Majorca, brings to life with gritty, action-packed scenes and cinematic framing an engaging experience with a classic pulp aesthetic

The naked body of a young Austrian woman , Eva Heydrich, dangles from her wrists in a Majorcan chalet. Despite the signs of violence and the stench of a summer death, her unsettling beauty remains. A revolver found in the trash is covered with the fingerprints of a sixty-year-old Swiss woman of libertine fame. But the murky life of Eva—an irresistible being devoted to both pleasure and destruction—suggests that this seemingly simple crime is just the tip of the iceberg.

In Madrid, the Guardia Civil assigns the case to seasoned Sergeant Rubén Bevilacqua, known as “Vila” to his colleagues, a former psychologist who found Jung’s theories amateurish. Teaming up with him is the inexperienced agent Virginia Chamorro, whose police skills are about to be tested for the first time. Disguised among German nudists, wild tourists, and local mobsters,
Bevilacqua and Chamorro dive into the dark side of a apparently serene Majorcan community, trying to piece together the final days of the murdered young woman.

The thrilling first case of the famous duo, Bevilacqua and Agent  Chamorro, from Lorenzo Silva’s acclaimed novel, springs to life with the vivid, high-contrast illustrations of Carol Medina and the gripping script by Rodolfo Santullo.