I just read Betty, the latest novel by the Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason, another great name of the Nordic crime novel. It lasted three days, but it's just short and it doesn't take longer. It is the second by Indridason that I read because, although I liked it The woman in green, I did not get to like his inspector Erlendur Sveinson. But this one had caught my attention because of the turn to a more classic story that was first published in 2003.

It is indeed a distinguished homage to the most canonical tradition of the noir on the figure of the femme fatale. In addition, it has very good touch of manipulation (and examination of the reader on own prejudices). It surprises you in the middle and returns you to a present that, until then, you could have believed from the 50s. While reading it, a couple of references. Those Laura y Sylvia, Vera caspary y Howard Fast.

Betty

With touches of Dashiel Hammett or Raymond Chandler, this novel has nothing to do with those that have made Indridason successful. Distills all the classicism more Black American both in its narration and in the structure and plot.

Just four main characters. The first-person narrator, a wealthy owner of a fishing fleet, his assistant and his seductive wife, the irresistible Bettý. The narrator tells his story from prison. His fall into hell caused by the unstoppable passion, desire and obsession for the manipulative Bettý. All for the commission of a Perfect Crime. Thus, we attend the interrogations that are made to him and that are interspersed with the story of why and how he ended up in prison.

Lies and mistakes that make up a plot that flows speed boat tour and it ends with the confirmation of an obsession that is not (and has not been) possible to end. Bettý shares mysterious pasts common with Fast's Sylvia and power to bewitch with Laura de Caspary.

Sylvia

Posted in 1960, the American writer Howard Fast (author of Spartacus) was still on the infamous Anti-American Activities Committee blacklist for his affiliation with the Communist Party. So he had to use the pseudonym of EV Cunningham to sign a good part of his work. Later, the different reissues already bear his real name.

En Sylvia we met with Alan macklin, a detective, inveterate reader and formerly a history teacher, whom a millionaire hires to find a mysterious woman The one you only know the name of, Sylvia. A book of poems has been published about her and thanks to which she will discover the harsh history of her past. Macklin will look for her on a trip following the few footprints that the girl leaves through the country.

Laura

Written by Vera caspary en 1942, this author of novels, plays and screenplays achieved fame with this title. Two years later I also got eternity in the Film adaptation de Otto Preminger, with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews as the leading couple. It is considered as a classic among classics of film noir.

Here we have Laura hunt, Which is sensual, bold and very ambitious, but the one we found dead on the carpet in her living room. Will be Tree men those who try to clarify his mysterious death. Waldo lydeker, an eccentric writer who aspired to Laura's love; Shelby Carpenter, her fiancé, and Marc macpherson, the detective who investigates the case and who, like the previous ones, will succumb to the spell that Laura exerts on them.

The interesting thing, in addition to its history, is the use of different narrative voices. These alternate omnisciently, entering the thoughts of other characters and at times when they are not present. Waldo Lydecker, Mark McPherson or Laura herself are showing us the clues to solve the enigma.