In 1972, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán first brought to life in this political fiction novel the character who would become his most beloved and celebrated: the detective, Pepe Carvalho. A former member of the Spanish Communist Party, disillusioned with politics; a Galician, passionate about the culinary arts, an inveterate hedonist, who works for the CIA as Kennedy's bodyguard and who will be immersed in the investigation of the assassination.

With Yo maté a Kennedy, Montalbán inaugurates a peculiar saga of crime novels with Carvalho as the protagonist, and in which the successive detective plots are seasoned with detailed, gargantuan descriptions. With Montalbán, Spanish crime fiction becomes a cross-border phenomenon. However, the writer's legacy goes beyond a particular genre, extending to poetry, essays and, of course, journalism. In recognition of his extensive, varied and exceptional work, he received the National Prize for Spanish Literature in 1995.