Title: Criminal Tales
Author: Pedro Mañas
Illustrator: David Sierra Listón
Year of Publication: 2018
Pages: 252
Age Group: 9-12
Publisher: Editorial Libre Albedrío (Spain)
Rights Agency: Antonia Kerrigan Agencia Literaria
Original Language: Spanish
World English Rights available
Translation assistance: Ministry of Culture

The premise for the book is a detective-turned-writer who’s going to give all the details about the cases he has worked on throughout his career as a detective. But this is no serious crime writing; this will elicit belly laughs at the ridiculous situations the detective finds himself in as well as the puns, witty wordplay and lashings of toilet humour woven in by Mañas.

The cases take place in cities both around the world and in imaginary places. The first case introduces us to Inspector Archibald Wilson, licence number 2506. It tells of how he became the first victim of swindler Victor Lustig at the tender age of just half an hour. Following on from this success, Victor goes on to become one of the world’s most famous con-men, selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal. Some people may recognise this as the real-life scam from 1925. Mañas takes this and imaginatively recreates the scenario, ending up with Victor living at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

With full colour illustrations and formatting to imitate the pages of a detective’s notebooks, Sierra Listón’s illustrations combine perfectly with Mañas’ hilarious original stories.

Pedro Mañas graduated with a degree in English from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Since then he has received many national and international awards for his children’s stories, among them El Barco de Vapor Prize and the Anaya Prize, two of the most prestigious prizes for children’s literature in the Spanish language. Mañas combines his writing with school visits, helping to promote a love of reading.

David Sierra Listón completed his BA and went on to study illustration at Madrid’s Escuela Arte 10. While interested in almost every aspect of illustration, the majority of his work has seen him illustrating books for children, working for some of Spain’s most prestigious publishers.