Alfredo Álamo, “El hombre de la pala” [The Man with the Spade] (2010)

Born in 1975 in Valencia, Alfredo Alamo is well known and respected in the niche world of fantasy and horror. He is one of the founding members of the Nocte collective, the association of Spanish writers of horror stories, but he has also published poetry, flash fiction, and produced screenplays for a prizewinning webcomic. He has two novels to his name so far plus one work of teen fiction. The protagonist of this story is an unsavoury character called Ismael, who works as a gardener in a cemetery and makes extra money by opening graves and stealing any valuables the deceased have been buried with. This story’s effect depends upon two elements that work well: at the level of plot, there is the twist that the unpalatable character turns out to be the victim and the evil vampire a beautiful little girl.