A master crime writer trains every weapon in his arsenal on a crime against humanity.A literary novel that treads fearlessly into one of recent historys most shocking moral crucibles.In 1980s El Salvador, a young woman is detained in a government torture squads head-quarters, suspected of supporting guerilla forces. There, a bookish new recruit, Victor Pea, is assigned to assist in her interrogation. Before they learn so much as her name Lorca the squad relentlessly break her, body and soul. It is a terrifying journey into human cruelty and courage, one which years later in the pinnacle of cosmopolitan America still haunts the tormentor as dramatically as it does his victim.From the Hardcover edition.