This study examines the work of Manuel Vazquez Montalban, a Spanish creative writer and socio-political commentator, focusing on his Carvalho series of detective novels, which span some 25 years. Bayo Bellenguer (Spanish, Dublin University, Trinity College) attempts to establish the literary value of the Carvalho series and to show how it relates to Montalban's earlier creative work and to his essays. She demonstrates the impact of major trends in literary theory upon the series in order to redress earlier critics' literary assessments, and analyzes the series' protagonist using the traditional tools of character study.