This essay collection examines the changing cultural, political and physical landscape of Spain as represented in Spanish crime fiction of the last three decades. The first several essays focus on crime fiction set in Barcelona and look at, among other topics, the symbiotic relationship between the city and the detective in Francisco Gonzalez Ledesma's long-running Inspector Mendez series, Manuel Vazquez Montalban's treatments of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and place and identity in Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett's Petra Delicado series. Other essays examine regional and cultural illiteracy in Jorge Martinez Reverte's Galvez series and Spain's changing urban centers as represented in Andreu Martin's El blues de la semana mas negra.