Jerónimo Andreu wins the III Paco Camarasa Prize for crime novels with 'El sueño del cíclope'

El sueño del cíclope

(Siruela, 2022), by Jerónimo Andreu, is the winning novel of the third edition of the Paco Camarasa Prize, awarded jointly by nine literary festivals: Las Casas Horcadas de Cuenca, Getafe Negro, Semana Negra de Gijón, Granada Noir, BCNegra, Pamplona Negra, the Black Novel and Film Congress of Salamanca, Valencia Negra and Aragón Negro.

The award includes, in addition to a cartoon by Camarasa, the invitation to participate in these events in 2023.

The winning novel is a

that takes place in Gibraltar about drugs, mafias, spies and money laundering.

The protagonist of it is Joseph Sanchez, a Gibraltarian ex-policeman recruited by the British secret service for his ability to infiltrate all kinds of environments.

Together with his collaborators, Abraham and Hawthorne, Sanchez is in charge of dismantling the financial network of the emerging Moldovan mafia in Andalusia, the community in which he resides.

The dream of the cyclops

bears similarities with

, Andreu's first title, published in 2018 by Salamandra.

Both works have in common the protagonist, the setting (Gibraltar), money laundering and spies.

Cover of 'The Dream of the Cyclops', by Jerónimo Andreu.

Andreu, who received the award with "great satisfaction", explained to Efe that he has tried to approach a genre that is difficult to tackle "without falling into the parody".

“We all like spy novels because they are fun and, at the same time, they reflect on lies and the limits to the use of force.

The obstacle that Spanish authors face when facing this genre is that expectations are inevitably conditioned by the Anglo-Saxon spy model”.

has allowed him to skirt these conventions through a protagonist who is half Spanish and half British.

A journalist and writer, Andreu worked for EL PAÍS, was a correspondent for

in Mexico and has also worked for the press department of the Ministry of the Interior.

He has dedicated himself to writing about corruption and social issues and with literature he goes from recounting these plots from reality to fiction.

The award is given in tribute to Paco Camarasa, bookseller and cultural activist, who promoted crime novels and supported new writers.

He ran the Black and Criminal bookstore in Barceloneta for more than a decade, a mythical place that became a benchmark for authors and readers.