"The phone rang and she knew they were going to kill her" is how this action-filled best-selling novel starts. This time, Pérez-Reverte's hero is a woman named Teresa Mendoza who is nicknamed ''The Queen of the South'' and ''The Mexican'' by the authorities of three continents. After her boyfriend, a pilot employed by drug lords, is murdered, she begins creating an empire with mafias from Spain, France, Italy and Russia in the male-dominated world of drug trafficking. Description in Nacida en Culiacán, Sinaloa (México). Hija de padre español y madre mejicana. Convivió con Raimundo Dávila Parra, (a.) El Güero Dávila, piloto de aviación relacionado con el cártel de Juárez. Viaja a España, Melilla. Relacionada con Dris Larbi, propietario de clubes nocturnos. Algeciras. Gibraltar. Relacionada con Santiago López Fisterra, piloto de planeadoras. Tráfico de tabaco y estupefacientes. Detenida por el servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera. Prisión de El Puerto de Santa María.