As every year, the black harvest reaches the end of the editorial year with a tide of novelties that range from the most harrowing thriller to classic detective novels, including a catalog of all kinds of criminals. La Lectura proposes a selection of titles for lovers of the genre to enjoy this last weekend of the Book Fair.
Destination. 464 pages. €21.90 Ebook: €9.99You can buy it here.
“Spike, it’s me. I’m short. I need you.” This is how a retired secret agent realizes that he can’t escape his past. Only Púa, the protagonist, is capable of carrying out a mission that directly affects the daughter of his best friend, Mazo de él. His friendship and his desire for the fight against terrorism will force him to accept. Lorenzo Silva, who has publications such as La flaqueza del bolchevique (finalist for the 1997 Nadal Award), Carta blanche (2004 Spring Award) or the travel book Del Rif al Yebal (Algaba Essay Award), among others, is one of the great references of contemporary black literature. Recognized for his detective novels, from this new thriller he finds himself face to face with the executioner’s heart. He achieves something never seen before: that the reader reflects on the double standards that some human decisions entail. Finally, he will drop new questions about guilt.
Translation by Maia Figueroa Evans. Seix. Barrel. 352 pages. 19 € Ebook: 9.99 €You can buy it here.
Donna Leon’s career, which goes through New Jersey, Perugia, Siena, Rome, London, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia, endorses her as one of the great contemporary crime and mystery writers. You will reap storms is the latest feat of Commissioner Brunetti. Following a call from her colleague, Inspector Vianello, he learns that he has been assigned to find out who the murderer of the Venice canals is. This criminal acts in a very peculiar way: the limbs of his victims gradually appear before the rest of the body is discovered. As the investigation progresses, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissioner Griffoni and Signorina Elettra put together the pieces of a puzzle that seems to make no sense, until Brunetti stumbles upon something that connects to his teenage past. Leon causes her star character to feel compelled to reflect on Italian history and how the ideals of youth fade over the years.
Translation by Dolors Gallart. Salamander. 416 pages. €21 Ebook: €10.99You can buy it here.
Salamanca in 2009 is the setting chosen by Bernard Minier for this crime novel in which three young criminology students discover that a murderer has been operating for three decades without being uncovered. His modus operandi consists of staging Renaissance compositions gluing the bodies of his victims. The recently released Civil Guard lieutenant Lucía Guerrero has just discovered that her partner has been crucified and glued to a hill on the outskirts of Madrid. From there, she travels to Salamanca determined to find the murderer of her friend and thus be able to do justice. A plot full of mystery that will not only solve the crime, but also subject the characters to a disturbing tension. Bernard Minier, master of the genre that has sold more than two million copies worldwide, will delve into the psychology of his characters with the intention of pushing the reader’s mind to the limit.
Translation by Pablo José Hermida. Reservoir Books. 448 pages. €22.90 Ebook: €9.99 You can buy it here.
Maleantes continues the line that characterizes the New Yorker journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. Through the description of different antagonistic characters, the author will demonstrate that each of them shares a common pattern: “The dark side of the human being.” Here he portrays, among other criminals, the arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar, nicknamed “the prince of Marbella”, tirelessly persecuted by a DEA agent, the controversial “devil’s advocate” who fights against the death penalty representing the worst criminals, Chapo Guzmán and his life after escaping from a high-security prison, or the famous Dutch criminal William Holleeder and his own sister’s efforts to achieve his imprisonment. After the enormous success of Say nothing, the writer demonstrates his mastery of the essay in this miscellany that received a wave of criticism and praise in the main American media.
AdN. 296 pages. €19.95 Ebook: €9.99You can buy it here.
Ayala has everything against him: he is an immigrant, a minor and a boxer. He now meets detective Mascarrel again, with whom he will be involved in the darkest business of the Frankfurt underworld. Little by little, their relationship will become closer and they will help each other in impossible and quite strange missions. The long-awaited literary return of Benito Olmo comes under what he himself calls “Hopscotch style” and is characterized by “letting the reader continue daydreaming.” Olmo has more than twenty books of experience within the genre, such as The Turtle Maneuver (adapted by Netflix) or The Sunflower Tragedy. A tanned feather under the lights given off by the bullets from the revolver. Here the writer invites the reader on a journey to the plot epicenter of his new style of black novel. Undoubtedly, one of the most reliable bets of the genre.
Translation by Jon Bilbao. Impedimentary. 272 pages 22.50 €You can buy it here.
Laird Koening seamlessly blends his studies in Literature and Psychology at Washington State University in this novel. A haunting masterpiece starring Rynn, a young outcast whose only interest is Emily Dickinson’s poetry. For this reason, she begins a relationship with a lame boy, her only friend. This novel -which inspired the film The little girl who lives down the lane, starring a very young Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen- was a breath of fresh air for a genre that has sometimes sinned from excessive homogenization . A referential novel, therefore, that has inspired generations. Millions of American teenagers identified with Rynn, a special and intelligent girl who enjoys her solitude. It will be the others who insist on being part of her small circle of friends.
Translation by Montse Triviño. Duomo. 352 pages €19.80 Ebook: €9.99 You can buy it here.
The successful Cristina Cassar Scalia once again gives life to the great investigator and deputy commissioner Vanina Garrasi. For this new volume, Garrasi will have to order and place the pieces of a puzzle that, although initially incongruous, ends up tightening the fence around several interrelated stories. In the middle of the night, Dr. Manfredi and his wife surprise a man throwing a bulky suitcase among the rocks. An hour later, Vanina receives an anonymous call informing the inspector that she has witnessed the murder of a girl in her chalet facing the sea at the hands of a man in a hat. With this novel, Cassar Scalia manages to keep the reader on edge until the last page, where she masterfully solves the mystery. The Sicilian writer is already a literary star in her country and a benchmark for the mystery genre. Italian television, following her success, has decided to bring Garrasi’s adventures to the “small-big” screen.
siruela. 206 pages. €19.95 Ebook: €9.99You can buy it here.
“Ghosts always appear at night. And they come covered with white sheets for a reason: to distinguish them in the dark. Ernesto Pitana had gotten used to their presence: for three years they had been arranged around his bed in droves.” With this novel, Pascual Martínez from La Rioja demonstrates once again his mastery when it comes to writing crime fiction. The protagonist, the sergeant of the Civil Guard Ernesto Pitana, will not have time to get used to his new destiny. During the dawn of Three Kings, the lifeless body of Martín Urquijo appears on Valdearenas Beach, a healer better known as the “saint of Villalobos” who is, in turn, the heir to a great fortune of a 19th century aristocratic family . Pitana and his team will have to ensure that their relationship does not hinder an investigation already stained with betrayal, mistrust and religious submission that characterizes the new destiny of the protagonist.
Rock. 368 pages. €22.90E Ebook: €7.99You can buy it here.
“Santa Rita is my declaration of love to the Mediterranean, and also to one of the literary genres that I enjoy the most, that of classic crime and mystery, those wonderful novels that I remember from my adolescence, that read very quickly, that take you to another place , they present you with a puzzle to solve and they close with a smile. If I’ve achieved that, I’ll be more than paid.” This is how Elia Barceló talks about a novel with which he intends to pay homage to Agatha Christe and in which several characters from Santa Rita have to solve two crimes from the past: that of a baby whose skeleton has just been found among the remains of a demolished wall and that of a well-known specialist in Art History. Inspector Lola Galindo with the help of her faithful Robles will have to investigate an unusual case full of unknowns related to the world of art, both from the last century and from this one.
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