Juan Artolabe is seventy, enormously wealthy, and one of Bizkaia's most powerful businessmen. More than a hundred guests have gathered at Bilbao's Hotel Carlton to celebrate him. Family. Friends. Business associates. The city's elite.



Then Artolabe disappears from his own party.



By the time he is found in the hotel's men's room, he is dead.



For Subinspector Ana Larburu and the Ertzaintza's Criminal Investigation Unit, there is no shortage of suspects. The crime scene has been compromised. The timeline is uncertain. Witnesses contradict one another. And beneath the polished surface of the Artolabe family lie grudges, rivalries, secret relationships, and a bitter struggle over a fortune.



But the family is only the beginning.



As interviews expose old resentments and forensic evidence opens new lines of inquiry, the investigation leads from Bilbao's wealthiest circles into hidden money trails, questionable business dealings, and criminal connections that extend far beyond the Carlton.



Everyone seems to have a motive.



The problem is that the evidence refuses to tell a simple story.



J. S. Berri (Javier Sagastiberri) was born in San Sebastián in 1959. He holds degrees in Economics from the University of the Basque Country and Hispanic Philology from UNED. Before retiring, he worked for many years as a financial inspector in Bizkaia.



He published his first crime novel, El asesino de reinas, in 2016 and has since written a series of crime novels firmly rooted in the landscapes, society and history of the Basque Country. His fiction combines intricate investigations with a strong sense of place and an interest in the secrets, conflicts and relationships that lie beneath the surface of contemporary life.



Death at the Carlton, originally published in Spanish as Muerte en el Carlton, is his first novel to be published in English under the name J. S. Berri.