The somersault of the black novel

Frequented en masse by the public and authors, versatile and capable of reinventing itself from time to time, the current situation of the noir genre is the result of a successful obstacle course in which it has survived more or less uniform fashions (

,

,

, all things Nordic,

, etc.) and his own excesses, often arising from the search for the new Stieg Larsson or the hunt for the next

and, by the way, a piece of the succulent Netflix cake.

Along the way, both in Spanish and in translated literature, a genre has been consolidated that, without losing sight of the classics, gives birth to new phenomena almost every year in its multiple meanings, labels, subgenres, experiments and that continues to enjoy a Unmatched presence in the publishing market.

A good example of this is the feast that authors and readers give each year with BCNegra as an alibi.

The Barcelona festival, which will host many of those mentioned in these lines, celebrates its eighteenth edition between February 6 and 12, already becoming a European benchmark and a showcase for publishers that, eager for media space and public exposure, are going putting the books on the market with a view to this meeting.

But the reader's availability is limited —no one would say so when looking at the more than 80,000 titles that are published each year in all genres— and this can only be a reasoned and organized selection from the entire publishing torrent.

Given the diversity of styles, collections, publishers and subgenres and the lack of figures for the sector, we have chosen to analyze the novelties divided by categories that are nothing more than expressions of the fluidity with which authors move in a genre that has broken all the barriers.

A Glasgow neighborhood in 1980. The image illustrates the cover of 'Death in April', by Alan Parks.

Raymond Depardon (Magnum Photos / ContactoPhoto)

under a special look

The first seven books in this review are united by what characterized the work of Alexis Ravelo, who died this week: a commitment to go as far as possible in the literary field within the always flexible seams of the genre.

It serves as a tribute to the author of

(Alrevés) or

(Siruela), a benchmark of crime novels in recent decades.

Kate Atkinson redeploys her particular voice (which is equally useful in the wonderful series of Jackson Brodie novels as well as for the spy story of

) in

(AdN), a story set in the twenties of the last century and with wonderful loads of irony.

More information

Black novel in Spanish: everything you need to know about a genre in continuous expansion

Laura Lippman assures that she did not expect

, (Salamander) to become a journalistic story.

It is, and a good one, but it is far from staying there.

An atypical crime novel, with a female protagonist, Maddie Schwartz, unforgettable for her strength and her ability to surprise, a character with classic shapes who makes her journey towards liberation and the painful knowledge of the truth of the crimes she investigates.

It also has impeccable architecture and a harsh portrait of Baltimore in the seventies and its problems of racism, classism and machismo.

Inés is also powerful, the protagonist of

, who returns almost 20 years later in

(Alfaguara) a new twist by Claudia Piñeiro to the genre.

Much more conventional, and no less appetizing, is

, by Colin Dexter (Siruela), the first story of Inspector Morse, a set of stories with an oxonian aroma starring an unforgettable character.

If you have seen the series, go through the books, if not, too.

And speaking of classics, the Ukrainian Andrei Kurkov is well on his way to becoming one.

The author of the disturbing and funny

(Blackie Books) turns to the more academic genre with

(Alfaguara), a story set in Kiev in 1919 and with his characteristic doses of humor and wit.

Pay attention to the protagonist, a certain Samson Kolechko, who will go down to the altars of many readers.

Shaun Evans (right) as Inspector Morse and Roger Allam as Fred Thursday in season 8 of 'Endeavour.'

Finally, two radical and extensive bets.

First,

, by Indian Deepti Kapoor (Alfaguara), a book that can be said to be a brutal portrait of the dark side of New Delhi society is an understatement;

a novel with violence, action, luxury and a good dose of literature that is sweeping half the world.

And radical is, although in another way, the commitment of the British Ray Celestin to narrate through music and history a criminal epic of the American society of the second half of the 20th century.

(Alliance) is the fourth installment and is centered in Los Angeles, in 1967 and with Louis Armstrong as a guest star.

The treasure of 'tartan noir'

The continuation of a mythical character in the hands of another writer has produced several disasters.

In the case of

(Salamander) it is easy to explain why it works.

Ian Rankin is in charge of finishing the novel that William McIlvanney was unable to finish off before he died in 2015, a prequel to Laidlaw, a founding character of

, that sort of Scottish subgenre that has given readers so much joy.

We are in 1972 and the detective is close to 40 years old, he has bounced out of some police stations and he is already the attractive, lonely and intelligent man who will give fame to his creator.

On his desk, Unamuno, Kierkegaard and Camus share a place with the reports and statements because, as he says, we know how a crime ends, but what is difficult is understanding how it begins.

The commitment to the Scottish (which has two other great references in Val McDermid or Peter May) is completed in this sort of news table with

, by Alan Parks (Tusquets), the fourth installment in the Harry McCoy series.

A classic detective story in Glasgow in the seventies, a character who sets the style from the first pages of

(you see where the idea is going) and a very well assembled plot are Parks' main arguments.

It's not Scottish, but it looks like it .

, by MW Craven (Roca Publishing), the fourth episode of the entertaining misadventures of the policeman Washington Poe, quite a character, in the northwest of England.

Andrea Camilleri, at her home in Rome in October 2017. Fabrizio Villa Getty Images (Getty Images)

The great Italian lineage

The Mediterranean black novel cannot be understood without Andrea Camilleri, a late and prolific writer, creator of the endearing Salvo Montalbano, of which

(Salamander) the last of the 33 novels in the series.

Now

(Destiny) is published, a text about his first contact with the mafia.

Camilleri shows the importance of creating a market, readers who have later turned to other autochthonous or translated authors (Alicia Giménez Bartlett, for example).

It is not the only Italian classic present in bookstores.

Tusquets publishes

by Leonardo Sciascia, another short and forceful novel by the Sicilian master.

It is probable that Antonio Manzini is one of those who has best followed the path opened by Camilleri.

From him comes

(Salamander), seventh installment of the series of the sarcastic Rocco Schiavone.

On the other hand, the northern reaction to Montalbano comes from Davide Longo and

(Destiny), the first installment of a very promising series.

Set in Piedmont, it contains several ingredients often repeated (a brilliant and relentless serial killer, a policeman tortured by a great loss) but twisted here with skill and respect for the reader.

Accompanying a narrated action without a single rhythm failure is a character, Corso Bramard, who catches you in search of him.

The most spectacular side is brought by Donato Carrisi with

(Duomo) is an action psychological

that is easy to read, in the style of Sandrone Dazieri, for example, with whom he shares a bestseller.

The 'thriller' of the north (of Spain)

Three works united by their setting in the Basque Country coincide in bookstores, already a whole subgenre.

Dolores Redondo takes the persecution of the murderer Bible John to Bilbao in 1983, a real unresolved case that the author of the

twists and expands to turn it into an effective police (and with a lot of rain),

(Destiny) .

With this work, Redondo distances himself somewhat from the mysterious northern forests through which the protagonists of

travel , by Ibon Martín (Plaza y Janés), who has successfully exploited the formula of the serial killer seasoned with the legends, the landscapes and the isolated enclaves of the area.

And in an isolated hamlet in the area lives the protagonist of

(Grijalbo), a

about disappearances written by Javier Díez Carmona.

A little further west, in Llanes, is Javier Rovira

(RBA).

From Lee Child to Carmen Mola

The

violent, unapologetic, fast and essentially masculine

The Blatt & Ríos publishing house is committed to publishing the 24 novels starring Jack Reacher.

Now comes the fourth in the series, one of the best and most personal, a good start for anyone who wants to enter the universe of this ex-military nomad with a sharp phrase and infinite cockiness.

Child has not created a school in Spain, but in recent years we have received

with that carefree style and hunting the general public.

There is Juan Gómez Jurado as bastions (his latest novel,

, published by Ediciones B, has been among the best sellers for months) or the Carmen Mola, but also César Pérez Gellida, Mikel Santiago, or Santiago Díaz, who premieres

(Reservoir Books), third installment of the series starring Indira Ramos.

Díaz is a screenwriter (like others in this group) and is a good example of this trend that seeks to complement the dizzying turns of his novels with the somersault of later bringing the book to the screen.

Travel back and forth

Sometimes it is difficult to explain why communities of readers respond differently to the same work.

Víctor del Árbol has some recognition in Spain (which includes the Nadal award in 2016), a glory that pales before the effect of his books in France, where the greatest recognition has been given to a crime novelist for works that have become true

like

(Reverse) or

(Fate).

They are intense, criminal and undoubtedly black books, but always on the borders of the genre, which is entered in a much more canonical way with

(Destiny).

Different is the journey of Teresa Cardona, who began publishing novels in France with four hands and under a pseudonym together with Eric Damien and who now shows in

that the series started with

(both in Siruela) and set in El Escorial it is on a very good path.

Arantza Portabales is the best example of that classic path that goes from short stories and microfiction to novels.

His is the series by Abad and Barroso, from which now comes

(Lumen), a fresh take on the police novel in Spanish with solid plots and good characters.

two of spies

This paradoxical genre, born for the show and with room for introspection, in which there is room for 007 or George Smiley, is experiencing a great moment.

, by Kim Sherwood (Roca Editorial) continues the famous saga by Ian Fleming and therefore brings together the reader's taste for the show and for the great cycles of novels.

Also British but with a castizo touch is Joseph Sánchez, the protagonist of

(Siruela), by Jerónimo Andreu, recent Paco Camarasa award winner, a series set in Gibraltar with action and originality.

The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura, in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés in 2022.Samuel Sánchez

Latam connection

Little by little, literature in Spanish from other countries arrived in greater quantity in Spain.

The already named Piñeiro is joined by the Cuban Leonardo Padura, who has culminated in

(Tusquets), the best novel in the series by the magnificent Mario Conde;

Elmer Mendoza, king of narconovelas but, above all, creator of the unforgettable Zurdo Mendieta;

Ernesto Mallo, halfway between Buenos Aires and Barcelona;

Jorge Fernández Díaz and his political-criminal and spy plots in contemporary Argentina;

the incombustible Paco Ignacio Taibo, from which Reino de Cordelia now recovers all the stories of Belascoarán, a seminal character in Spanish crime novels.

Also new values ​​such as Federico Axat, enlisted in the ranks of the psychological

as evidenced by his latest novel,

(Destiny) or Nicolás Ferraro, one of the latest winners of the Dashiell Hammett of Gijón's Black Week, awaiting its final arrival in the Spanish market.

Coda: a small loop

By dint of renewing itself, the genre sometimes returns to the starting point, without it being good or bad, rather inevitable among so much variety.

For example, the Danish Steffen Jacobsen will pass through BCNegra to present

(Roca Editorial) and the new Harlan Coben bookstores,

(RBA), a

of the Myron Bolitar series by the hand from one of the most prolific writers on Netflix.

Lastly, Seix Barral brings

, by Ragnar Jónasson, an Icelander who has already sold ten times more books than his country's population.

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