Rebecca Pawel

Rebecca Pawel (born 1977, New York City) is an American high school teacher and author of mystery novels. She is most notable for her series of historical novels set in Francoist Spain, starring Carlos Tejada Alonso y León, a staunchly anti-Communist officer in the Guardia Civil.

Biography 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, She received her master's from Teachers College in 2000.

Pawel has asserted she never intended to write mysteries, and came upon the idea almost by accident. It was also nominated for the Macavity Award at Bouchercon, and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. Death of a Nationalist was originally conceived as a stand-alone mystery, but became the foundation for an entire series of novels centered around the character of Carlos Tejada Alonso y León. and her "gold standard for writing".