Lie (Mentira)

Eva has made lying her profession. Hired by an enigmatic man, she arrives in a snow-isolated village where a series of murders threatens to ignite a war between two families fighting for control of a mountain rich in gold. Before revealing her true identity, she must uncover who is behind the crimes—and how they have turned the village into their personal game board. The latest novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado, one of the most widely read thriller authors in the world.

Eva Ramos does not exist. She is a constructed identity: that of a professional liar trained since adolescence by an enigmatic man known as the Baron, who has turned her into a tool for manipulating illegal operations.

In her latest assignment, Eva must mediate a drug exchange at the port of Gijón. The operation ends in a shootout with two deaths. Eva survives but realizes something has gone wrong. She escapes, shaken, with the feeling that for the first time she has lost control.

Without stopping, she goes to pick up her brother Pablo, gravely ill, after their mother threatens to abandon him. Eva makes an impulsive decision: to take him and disappear together. But the Baron reappears and reveals the truth—the failure at the port was no accident, but a trap designed to punish her for trying to escape. Still, he offers her a way out: one last job in an isolated place, Somiedo. In exchange, he promises her freedom and a treatment that could save Pablo’s life.

With no real alternative, Eva accepts. On the way to the village, they suffer an accident that leaves them on the brink of death. When Eva wakes up, she finds herself in a completely different environment: Somiedo, cut off by a snowstorm, surrounded by mountains and silence. The villagers have rescued her and found among her belongings an ID identifying her as a judge. It is fake—but Eva cannot deny it without revealing who she really is.

Trapped in her own lie, she is forced to assume that role when she is asked to investigate the death of a local man.

She soon discovers that Somiedo is not just an isolated village, but a territory under tension. For generations, it has been divided between two rival clans, the Senda and the Ranca, who are fighting for control of the mountain. The conflict has resurfaced with the discovery of a gold vein whose exploitation is to be decided by an imminent vote. In this context, every villager matters, every vote is crucial, and every death shifts the balance.

When a second body appears, fear spreads. The village closes in on itself. No one trusts anyone. Every conversation is strategic, every gesture suspicious. Both the Senda and the Ranca pressure Eva to steer the investigation in their favor.

With occasional help from her brother Pablo and Father Fermín—one of the few villagers who seems to remain neutral—Eva begins to reconstruct what happened. As she digs deeper, she realizes that the victims are not random, but key figures whose deaths alter the outcome of the vote on the gold’s exploitation. Someone is using the conflict between the clans as a smokescreen.

This realization leads her to focus on a figure who has remained in the background: Rafael Llamero. A seemingly neutral, charismatic man who does not clearly belong to either side and who watches as the Senda and the Ranca wear each other down.

Eva discovers that Llamero has orchestrated everything. He has murdered several villagers while posing as members of one clan or the other, manipulating evidence and testimonies to fuel the conflict. His goal is not only to sway the vote, but to shatter the village’s balance, provoke chaos, and then present himself as the only figure capable of unifying it and controlling the mountain’s exploitation.

When the vote finally takes place, tension reaches its peak. The result is tight, the village is on edge, and any spark could make it explode.

At that moment, Eva decides to stop lying. She reveals her true identity and exposes Llamero’s plan: the murders, the manipulation, the strategy to seize control. For an instant, everything stops. But Llamero reacts.

He grabs a shotgun, takes Eva and Pablo hostage, and sets fire to the building where the villagers have gathered. The flames spread quickly. The space becomes a trap—smoke, fire, screams. The villagers try to escape as the conflict erupts amid the chaos. At the last moment, several of them confront him. Violence explodes, and the conflict culminates in Llamero’s death, consumed by the very chaos he created.

In the epilogue, Eva wakes up in a hospital in Oviedo. Somiedo has chosen to close ranks and conceal what happened, protecting its fragile equilibrium. Then the Baron appears. He has kept his promise: he will pay for Pablo’s treatment.

But he is not done with her. He offers her the chance to continue working for him. For the first time, Eva does not answer immediately. After everything she has lived through—the lies, the confinement, the violence—she now has a real choice: to remain the identity he created or to break free from her past once and for all.

Mentira unfolds as a closed-space mystery thriller, where a group of isolated characters with opposing interests become suspects to one another as the truth gradually emerges. In the tradition of Agatha Christie, the investigation progresses through false identities, manipulated clues, and constant twists, ultimately revealing that the real danger lies not only in the killer, but in the web of interests and lies sustaining the entire community.

RELEVANT FACTS: Juan Gómez-Jurado is a journalist and writer, considered one of the most influential voices in Spanish-language thrillers. His work has become an unprecedented bestseller phenomenon in Spain and has established him as one of the most internationally successful Spanish authors, with publications in more than forty countries and translations into multiple languages. Known for his ability to innovate within the thriller genre, he has also connected strongly with younger readers.

Mentira is a thriller built on constant tension, narrative twists, and progressive revelations that reshape the story until the very end. Its premise creates a perfect closed setting for suspense. The plot combines family secrets, power struggles, and a criminal mystery that becomes increasingly complex with each new development. The protagonist—ambiguous and manipulative—offers an unpredictable perspective that keeps the audience on edge. With its fast pace, multiple suspects, and explosive climax, the story has clear potential for a highly engaging audiovisual adaptation.

What critics say:

“This is, without a doubt, Gómez-Jurado’s best novel.” – ABC

“The best thriller of the last twenty years. A masterpiece.” – Zenda

“A masterful and twistedly addictive thriller.” – El placer de la lectura

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish