Nineteen years after the unsolved murder of an American girl, Sergeant Aitor Ruiz and his team reopen an investigation that leads them to a network of political corruption, mafias, and rogue police officers willing to kill to protect a buried secret.
In 1998, Luciana Jenkins, a twelve-year-old American girl, disappears after leaving school in Barcelona. A week later, her body is found on the beach with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Beside her, a key is discovered that could never be matched to any lock. The case is closed without suspects.
In 2017, the investigation is reopened when it is discovered that someone has tampered with evidence from within the police. Pressure from the United States embassy —whose ambassador was the girl’s godfather— forces the case to be revisited. Sergeant Aitor Ruiz and his team review the original file and uncover serious irregularities: missing evidence, altered testimonies, and decisions that were never justified.
The main suspect at the time was Roberto Meneses, known as “the Religious One,” a violent individual with paranoid schizophrenia and ties to organized crime. His reappearance turns the investigation into an immediate threat. Hunted by both the police and various criminal organizations, Meneses unleashes an escalation of violence and obtains explosive material. The situation reaches its critical point when he plans an attack on a church in Barcelona. Officer Mar García manages to take him down before he can detonate the explosives.
But his death does not solve the case.
As the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that Meneses was not the main perpetrator, but rather a piece within a much larger structure. Luciana’s murder is linked to a corruption network that for years has connected mafias, businessmen, police officers, and high-ranking state officials. An organization dedicated to laundering money from drug trafficking and fraudulent public contracts, and that has eliminated those who tried to investigate it.
The key lies in the only clue never resolved: the key found next to the girl’s body. It leads to a hideout linked to the theft of a significant haul from a casino, carried out around the same time as her disappearance. That money, tied to the criminal network, triggered a chain of betrayals and murders that lasted for years.
The investigation then points to Enrique Ortiz, a former informant and friend of Aitor Ruiz himself. Years earlier, Luciana caught him hiding the bodies of two men involved in that robbery: associates of his who tried to betray him. To avoid being discovered, Ortiz kidnapped the girl and held her captive for several days before murdering her. For nearly two decades, several officers manipulated evidence to protect him.
When Ruiz and his team gather the final evidence, the investigation reaches Rafael de los Ríos-Arjona, Secretary of State for Security and a key figure in the network. Faced with the risk of everything coming to light, he attempts to silence Ruiz himself but fails. The police operation culminates in his arrest and the collapse of the entire structure.
After almost twenty years of cover-up, the murder of Luciana Jenkins is solved. But the investigation reveals a deeper truth: it was not an isolated crime, but the consequence of a corrupt system that allowed the truth to remain buried for years.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: Sergio Milán-Jerez is a Spanish writer who currently runs his own publishing imprint, Esfera Dorada. He received an Honorable Mention at the 2024 International Latino Book Awards. Among his most notable works is the Vidar Trilogy, a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat thanks to its plot and its complex protagonists.
The Stray Bullet of Luciana Jenkins is a sequel to the Vidar Trilogy that brings back Sergeant Aitor Ruiz as the protagonist of a dark and ambitious crime thriller, where criminal investigation intertwines with political conspiracies, institutional corruption, and organized crime.
Built as a wide-ranging ensemble story, the novel stands out for its breakneck pace, constant narrative twists, and a noir atmosphere charged with tension and violence. Its main audiovisual strength lies in the solidity of its parallel plots, the moral complexity of its characters, and the cinematic dimension of its criminal universe.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Film.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
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