SDT Bonus Content

Character profile - Rita

Rita is a vegan police officer in the Policia Nacional in Valladolid. 42 years old, with long black hair, she's fiery af and obsessed with animals - both of which get her in trouble during the course of the book.

Rita had a difficult upbringing, her mother frequently prioritised her sister instead of her, and still does - calling her selfish for not wanting anything to do with Maria and her husband. The mother is controlling of the father, a quiet man who Rita was always much more close to. However, she doesn't particularly want to be pitied.

She had a difficult divorce a few years ago with an ex husband who was an estate agent. While not violent, he was insensitive, emotionally abusive and often criticised her looks. He was also unkind to Rita's cat Gloria, which was an unforgivable sin. Gloria died several months before the story starts and Rita still misses her - and almost views Pepelito as a replacement.

She has a personal grudge against Castella who is her brother in law, due to him being a matador and - perhaps more importantly - due to his drug dealing and involvement with cartels and organised crime. Due to Maria's marriage to Castella, the two women stopped speaking to one another. This is compounded by the fact that Rita was shot by individuals linked to Castella during a drugs raid several years ago, spent a long time in hospital, and her family's attitude was entirely unchanged. Because her mum is controlling, her relationship with the dad has suffered.

Her mum is one of these people who thinks that 'family' is important but doesn't really care about its members- so she ignores all sorts of things that Maria is doing and just chooses to believe that Rita is being difficult. This is a source of pain for Rita but she is unfortunately used to it and finds the situation very hard especially as her parents are getting old.

She tries her best to investigate cases honestly, and joining the police was her lifelong dream as a child, despite the jokes with Dominguez about wanting to become a vet. She has very strong opinions on things, and when it comes to anything to do with animal rights, is very outspoken. This sometimes gets her in trouble - so, when she goes to the bullring, she yells at a checkout girl basically because of all the stress she's under and because of thinking of what Pepelito had to go through. However, she is a very good interrogator and great at getting suspects to crack.

Her love of animals takes her to quite extreme lengths. With the help of Alfonso, she hides Pepelito in her house when he turns up badly injured, and is unimpressed when people tell her that this is insane. She has no desire at all, to have kids, but would do literally anything to help an animal, and to avoid hurting them. For example, during the plane journey when they are stuck in the hold, she feels tremendously guilty at frightening Chicero and hurting him by mistake, even though he had almost gored her.

She is very outspoken, doesn't take any shit and can be terrifying if you get on the receiving end of her wrath. However, she can't really hide other feelings very well either - laughing at Henry for stating that Juan Belmonte had been gored 50 times.

Henry gets it right when he thinks that Rita will do anything to help a bull in need. She despises animal suffering and pretty much cares more about animals than anything else, to the great amusement of Dominguez, who is her best friend and has lots of banter.

She's quite empathetic and wants to help people that the police have failed in the past, such as Sonia Guiterrez and her family. However, despite this, she's very keen on following the law. She puts her job above most things- except animals. During her marriage, her 'copper's instinct' led to her sensing that there was a domestic violence situation among her husband's friends, and he thought nothing of the dynamics in the relationship. She's also a good interrogator, as when she tells Valero of his hatred of sex workers and gets him to crack that way.

She's very capable of defending herself and doesn't need anyone to defend her. During the final scenes she saves herself when the hotel owner's son tries to rape her at knifepoint, by killing the guy.

However, she's scared of flying, which makes the whole plane journey with Pepelito and Chicero that much more terrifying. Although she can panic in a dangerous or stressful situation, she usually still regains control and even manages to find the humour in it.

She's very fussy when it comes to relationships and if you get in a relationship with her, it will probably end up with her putting her job first. However, she does have quite a lot of self doubt and often feels guilty about having to do this. Because Alfonso is so well suited to her, she gets paranoid about losing him. And, he also gives her the confidence to stand up to her mum and family - openly.

She gave up smoking heavily years ago but still occasionally smokes when she is stressed. She isn't an alcoholic but can drink a fair amount and doesn't eat that healthily. To relax, her favourite things are watching nature documentaries (not cop thrillers because they get things wrong!) and hanging out in the countryside. After she's released from hospital, the first thing she does is going to hang out with Pepelito and Chicero who make her feel relaxed.