Javier Castillo Malaga's global Netflix sensation

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Costa-born writer Javier Castillo has become a global name thanks to his gripping thrillers set not only in Spain but also the USA

Jennie Rhodes

Friday, 17 April 2026, 12:10

Malaga-born Javier Castillo really became an international phenomenon after the thriller Snow Girl, set in Malaga and featuring SUR, was released on Netflix in 2023 and soon became the most-watched series in several countries including the UK and USA.

Starting off with self-publishing, it was Suma (Penguin Random House) that finally opened doors for the writer in 2017 and his books became an instant hit not just in Spain but across the world. In fact, just his first book alone was translated into ten languages and published in more than 63 countries.

In 2019 his book Everything Happened to Miranda Huff, which showed his talent for setting books in the United States, would mark his international breakthrough. The Snow Girl, written in 2020 and set in the world of crime journalism with the protagonist working as a journalist for SUR, became the most widely read novel in Spain during the pandemic.

The following year, Netflix acquired the adaptation rights to the saga, the first installment of which became number one worldwide on the North American platform's streaming service in 2023.

In January 2025 the adaptation of Castillo's 2021 novel The Soul Game was released on Netflix as the second season of The Snow Girl.

It was described as "one of the best series I've watched in a long time" by the UK and US-based Unilad website and fans in the UK were apparently "up until 2am binge-watching it" according to the UK's Metro newspaper. It also scored 100 per cent on the Rotten Tomatoes film website.

With his next novel, The Crystal Cuckoo (2023), Castillo opened a new literary mystery set in the world of medical transplants in rural America.

In 2023 publisher Penguin Michael Joseph acquired the rights to The Snow Girl for the UK and the countries that make up the Commonwealth, opening up the possibility of reaching markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.