Rebecca Pawel

Rebecca Pawel is an American high school teacher and author of mystery novels. She is most notable for her series of historical novels set in fascist Spain, starring Carlos Tejada Alonso y León, a staunchly anti-Communist officer in the Guardia Civil. Pawel began to develop an interest in the Iberian peninsula while studying flamenco and classical Spanish dance in junior high school. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1995, where she furthered her interest in Spain during a school trip to Madrid. In her undergraduate studies at Columbia University she majored in... Spanish-language literature, with a concentration in the literature of the Iberian peninsula. She received her masters from Teachers College in 2000. Pawel has said that she never intended to start writing mysteries, and came upon the idea almost by accident. In the summer of 2000, while on vacation in Spain, Pawel sent an e-mail to her college professor, Persephone Braham, asking if she could pick her up anything while she was there. Braham requested she bring back some murder mysteries set in Madrid.
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