Time of the Flies

By Claudia Pineiro

Life after crime from the International Booker-shortlisted author of Elena Knows

Fifteen years after killing her husband’s lover, Inés is fresh out of prison and trying to put together a new life. Her old friend Manca is out now too, and they’ve started a business – FFF, or Females, Fumigation, and Flies – dedicated to pest control and private investigation, by women, for women. But Señora Bonar, one of their clients, wants Inés to do more than kill bugs―she wants her expertise, and her criminal past, to help her kill her husband’s lover, too.

Crimes against women versus crimes by women; culpability, fallibility, and our responsibilities to each other―this is Piñeiro at her wry, earthy best, alive to all the ways we shape ourselves to be understandable, to be understood, by family and love and other hostile forces.

Reviews of Time of the Flies

'This propulsive novel lays bare the struggles of living under patriarchy.' Publishers Weekly

'Hard-hitting and direct.' The Times Literary Supplement

'Piñeiro is delightfully successful at marrying the joy of a crime novel with the intelligence, and deep characterization, of literary fiction.' –Words Without Borders

'The vibrancy of Piñeiro's writing is never lost in translation in Frances Riddle's nuanced and meticulously crafted English version.' –Sounds & Colours

'For fans of crime novels, revenge, and translated novels!' –Book Riot