Eugenio Fuentes to Receive 2026 Ciudad de Santa Cruz Crime Novel Award for 'Wendy'

The crime genre in Spain has reached a new milestone with the upcoming 2026 Ciudad de Santa Cruz Crime Novel Award. Organizers of the Tenerife Noir festival announced that the prize, which honors an author’s career and technical skill, will be awarded to Extremaduran writer Eugenio Fuentes for his 2025 novel, Wendy.

The award ceremony will be held on November 5 at 7:00 p.m. in the Sala de Tenidas of the capital’s Masonic Temple, with the Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, in attendance. Selected from fifty entries, Wendy highlights the continued popularity of Ricardo Cupido, the private detective at the heart of Fuentes’ series. In this novel, the author uses a thriller format to explore modern issues, connecting a young woman’s disappearance to the power dynamics of professional football and the loss of privacy in the digital age.

The event aims to bridge the gap between literature and the public. Starting an hour earlier at 6:00 p.m., the festival’s book club will host a discussion with the author, moderated by Iñaki Valdés and Abigaíl Negrín. This direct interaction is a key feature of the partnership between the City Council and Tenerife Noir, which seeks to bring literary analysis to a wider audience.

While the winner was originally announced on April 23 for Book Day, this ceremony marks the final event in the island’s current cultural cycle. Festival organizers are already planning the next edition, scheduled for March 5–20, 2027. Due to limited capacity at the upcoming ceremony, the organization requests that attendees book their spots in advance via their official email address.