Madeleine McCann was three years old when she went missing in Portugal during the family's vacation in May this year. She has been the subject of a Europe-wide search ever since.
Portuguese authorities made Kate and Gerry McCann formal suspects in the case this autumn. Traces of Madeleine's blood were reported to have been found in the McCanns' car, hired 25 days after she vanished.
The book, 'A Culpa dos McCann', or 'The Guilt of the McCanns', claims that a plan to get rid of their daughter was thought up by Gerry and Kate McCann before they left Britain for their holiday in Praia da Luz.
The family spokesman dismissed the book as "rubbish," saying also that "You can imagine the pain and anguish that this sort of rubbish brings Kate and Gerry."
The book was written by Manuel Catarino, editor-in-chief of Correio da Manha, a Portuguese tabloid newspaper.
Portuguese police investigating Madeleine McCann's disappearance are thought to have traveled to Huelva, in southern Spain, to search for the girl's grave this October.
"Portuguese police suspect that the girl's body could be hidden in Huelva...as it was here that her parents came on August 3, three months after the girl's disappearance," wrote the Spanish paper, Mundo, citing a police source.
The paper also noted that "police investigators consider suspicious Gerry and Kate McCann's trip to Huelva, the purpose of which they have been unable to ascertain."
Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin Group, pledged in September 100,000 British pounds ($200,000) to a legal defense fund for Kate and Gerry McCann.
