Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit

Davide wants to understand why his business is failing. He doesn't expect the answer to reach deep into the Church, Opus Dei, the legal profession and even the Spanish political establishment itself.

He calls in Caterina, a former partner from Sydney, who brings her irreverent, brilliant, bisexual colleague Emilia. Together with Ana, a well-connected Madrid insider, and her cousin Pedro, a senior investigating policeman, they start pulling at what they imagine to be a single thread of corporate misbehaviour.

But it is not single. It runs deeper — involving money laundering, institutional deceit and many people each with a reason to ensure truths never surface.

Will Davide and Ana be allowed to expose what they find? Or will the powerful bury their sins, in the way they always have?\

If you enjoyed any of the following, you should like "Corruption's Price" with its corporate malfeasance, international business schemes, money laundering and involving expatriates and locals navigating systemic corruption in Madrid:

• The Expats by Chris Pavone
  • Why: Centers on an American couple caught in a complex web of financial fraud, offshore banking, and double-crosses while trying to navigate the European corporate landscape.
• A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré
  • Why: A masterclass in white-collar tracking, showing how illegal funds, shady bank routing, and international intelligence assets collide to destroy lives.
• The Partner by John Grisham
  • Why: Deals with corporate theft, offshore accounts, and the exhausting process of trying to disappear after siphoning money out of a corrupt business system.
• The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
  • Why: Set right in the heart of Madrid, this thriller captures the specific atmosphere of Spanish deceit, combining local upper-class power structures with a deadly logic puzzle.
• The Fear Index by Robert Harris
  • Why: Explores the dangerous consequences of corporate greed when financial systems are left unchecked by ethics, mirroring Davide's realization that his business success is being intentionally undermined.