Barcelonta, Barcelona, the early sixties: anarchist urban guerillas are still alive and kicking, a headache for Franco's political police. The former Belgian Congo, in the same decade: European mercenaries are to be found in the war torn country. And some of those mercenaries are Spanish and their reasons for being in the Congo are as surprising as their personal stories. These are the settings in which the two plot lines of La mano del muerto unfold: a novel in which intrigue and adventure leap from one continent to another, guided by the blind hand of fate. At the epicentre of both plot lines is the same character, young José Matí, known as 'Bulova'. Matí, who is reminiscent of some of Juan Marsé's characters, soon becomes involved in an African odyssey worthy of the best of Frederick Forsyth.