Toni Romano
Created by Juan Madrid (1947-)

Spanish writer Juan Madrid has written four action-packed novels so far featuring former boxer and an ex-cop TONI ROMANO. Toni, whose real name is Antonio Carpintero, earns a living on the very mean streets of post-Franco Madrid, doing various gigs such as a bouncer, a collector of bad debts....and occasionally he helps out a detective agency.

Closer than M.V.Montalban to the American noir novelists, Madrid''s been a strong critic of the devastation left by Franco's system of government. Perhaps that's why his first novel wasn't published until after Franco's death.

NOVELS

• Un beso de amigo (1980; AKA The Kiss-Off)
• Las apparencias no engañan (1982; AKA Seeing is Believing)
• Regalo de la casa (1986)
• Hotel Paraiso ( 1987)

Contributed by Marcel Bernadac.