José Carlos Somoza Ortega (born 13 November 1959) is a Spanish author. He was born in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. In 1960 his family moved to Spain after being exiled for being from a

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

class. His family proved to be in difficult financial situation after having moved to Spain because they had been forbidden to take anything along except their child. And there were a lot of friends who helped them a lot during their first years in Spain. He holds a

Bachelor's Degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

, but he gave up medicine in order to become a full-time writer in 1994. Since 1994 he made his first steps in writing and sent his works to the different literature competitions, to magazines and publishers all over Spain. And his first book was published the same year. When his fifth novel ''The Cave of Ideas'' obtained an international acknowledge, he realized that he had chosen the right route in his life.

Works

*''Planos'' (1994) *''El silencio de Blanca'' (1996) *''Miguel Will'' (1997) (play) *''Cartas de un asesino insignificante'' (1999) *''La ventana pintada'' (1999) *''La caverna de las ideas'' (2000; ''

The Athenian Murders ''The Athenian Murders'' is a historical mystery novel written by Spanish author José Carlos Somoza. Originally published in Spain under the title ''La caverna de las ideas'' (The Cave of Ideas) in 2000, it was translated into English in 2002 b ...

'', 2002, shortlisted for the UK's

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

, winner of the

CWA Gold Dagger The CWA Gold Dagger is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom since 1960 for the best crime novel of the year. From 1955 to 1959, the organization named their top honor as the Crossed Red Herring Award. ...

) *''Dafne desvanecida'' (2000; shortlisted for Spain's Nadal Prize) *''Clara y la penumbra'' (2001; ''The Art of Murder'', 2004) *''La dama número trece'' (2003) *''La caja de marfil'' (2004) *''El detalle (tres novelas breves) (included : Planos'', ''El detalle'' and ''La boca)'' (2005) *''Zig Zag'' (2006; ''Zig Zag'', 2007) *''Fantasmas de papel'' (2007) *''La llave del abismo'' (2007) *''El cebo'' (2010) *''Tetrammeron'' : ''Los cuentos de Soledad'' (2012) *''La cuarta señal'' (2014) *''Croatoan'' (2015) *''El origen del mal'' (2018) *''Estudio en negro'' (2019) *''El signo de los diez'' (2022)

Awards

* The Second Gabriel Sijé Short Story Award for ''"Planes"'' (1994) *The Margarita Xirgu Prize for dramatic radio scripts, convened by Radio Exterior de España and the Ibero-American Cooperation Institute for his screenplay ''"Langostas"'' (1994) *The Cervantes Theater Award (INAEM) for his play ''"Miguel Will"'' (1997) *The Café Gijón Award for his novel ''"La ventana pintada"'' (1998) *Finalist for the Nadal Prize for his novel ''"Dafne Desvanecida"'' (2000) *

Fernando Lara Novel Award The Fernando Lara Novel Award () is given annually in Spain by the José Manuel Lara Foundation and the Planeta publishing house to an unpublished novel in the Spanish language. The publication of the finalist (runner-up) work is not expected, al ...

for ''Clara y la penumbra'' (2001) *The Hammett Prize of black novel with ''"Clara and the penumbra"'' (2002) *The Macallan Gold Dagger For Fiction Award 2002, awarded by the Mystery Writers Association of the United Kingdom for his novel ''"The Cave of Ideas"'' (2002) *Flintyxan Award for the best historical police novel, awarded to ''"The Cave of Ideas"'' by the Association of Swedish Novel Writers (2004) *Special mention in the ''Premio Celsius 232'' (to the best work of science fiction or fantasy of 2007 written in Spanish) for ''The Key of the Abyss (La llave del abismo'') in the 21 Black Week of Gijón *''The Key of the Abyss (La llave del abismo'') received the Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja.

References

External links

*
Book review – The Athenian Murders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somoza, Jose Carlos Spanish mystery writers Spanish novelists Spanish male novelists Spanish medical writers Spanish psychiatrists Cuban emigrants to Spain Writers from Havana 1959 births Living people Writers of historical mysteries