A second note to readers:

Barcelona, the city where I was born and where I have lived for most of my life, is the setting for nearly all the stories in Connections. And Barcelona is also the city to which all the characters belong, even in stories which are partly set in other areas of Catalonia. In this sense, Connections is a noirish mosaic that shows off different fragments of the city, its inhabitants and history. An ironic gaze drives most of these stories, built around one or two criminal acts with characters who generally don’t belong to the city’s underworld but live in the well-off or working-class neighbourhoods where violence goes hand in glove with intrigue and subterfuge.

Although the stories in Connections are independent, some characters and situations are related, whether obviously or obliquely. You must read carefully to identify the connections between one narrative and the others – and you don’t have to read them in order to solve the puzzle. Reader, I am issuing you a challenge: spot the connections, the detail or character that makes each story a piece of this mosaic.