Sirens y The gypsy bride are two of the black novels of greater projection in today's landscape. And it turns out that there are also two successful debut operas who sign english Joseph Knox y carmen mola, pseudonym of the author (or author) that has surprised the national critics and public the most. I just read them and give them a review.
The truth is that I have to take off my hat. All of us who do that we write would like to see a novel in our debut feature and, also, to have it published in a big way, but it only comes out to some. The last examples are those of these writers who, with their first two works, they have revolutionized the black scene with two stories of those in which everything seems round: structure, style, plot, denouement and powerful endings that remain open.
Sirens - Joseph Knox
Joseph Knox is in his early thirties, he was born in Manchester, and worked in bars, pubs and bookstores before moving to London. With SirensWith much of his experience and observation while working in those environments, he has achieved that success the first time.
And he has used a great style (a stark first-person narration by the protagonist) and good characters, from the main to the secondary. Also from a structure of parts and short chapters that are read without stopping. To that we add an atmosphere as dark as the narrative (the gray, harsh streets and the most rotten premises and neighborhoods of Manchester). And a plot where the very hard x-ray of the drug and the fauna around it and its effects in a picture as bleak as it is devoid of pity or hope.
These Mermaids, title that refers to the girls who pass drugs in those places and that then they must take the money collected to the traffickers on duty, they have achieved deserved success. With an aftertaste of a classic of the genre, it is a great work that perhaps cryptic in dialogues and also stark in descriptions, but which are part of restlessness and mental state of the protagonist and the rest of the characters.
I wish, and this is already my most personal opinion, that protagonist would have reached me more deeply, a particularly essential requirement when getting into a story. But I have not managed to connect with AIdan Waits, the chaotic infiltrated policeman who you don't know what to think, who distrusts everything and everyone, and who carries a personal history of uprooting.
I have also not been able to connect well with his demons and addictions nor with his relationships with the other characters. Perhaps it has been that atmosphere of unease and mistrust that the story exudes. But their losses or their interests have stayed with me before I get to what I need from a character to hit the nerve. However the whole picture achieves balance.
And just another point also merely anecdotal: that being a fan of The big bang theory and worshiping such a great character of the genre as Bud White (LA Confidential, James Ellroy), that one of the secondary, bad more than bad, is called Sheldon White has not helped me believe it. However, yes, I recommend a good dark bath with these Sirens.
Joseph Knox is already working on a second novel, so there will be more Aidan Waits.
The gypsy bride - Carmen Mola
Carmen Mola is the pseudonym behind the author who has signed an epoch-making debut in the blackest literary panorama. That plays a lot in their favor as it increases the expectation and the mystery. So you already have a first big hit. The second is to have masterfully transferred a horror, twisting and cruelty in plots, details, characters and tempos that we have read to other authors from outside, but not so much in these parts.
There are strokes of, for example, French Pierre Lemaitre or Franck Thilliez creepier or the british Mo hayder in his dark Jack Caffery series and Daniel cole with its also recent Ragdoll. And with them, Mola organizes an impeccable plot around the very macabre murder of two young gypsy sisters at different times but similar circumstances.
In parts led by a narrative of terrible past events, the present-tense chapters are just over three pages long, with concise phrases and snappy descriptions that facilitate a reading that is as quick as it is easy. And a police team of characters as well outlined as they are effective is added, starting with the protagonist, the inspector Elena Blanco, without a doubt another success in these times of the famous female empowerment.
But they all form a choral "cast", because without a doubt their creation is also totally cinematographic, not only in their descriptions and behaviors, but also in the pace by which everyone connects with each other and with the action. In addition, and for those of us who live or usually move around Madrid, following them in their inquiries through that old town or so recognizable peripheral neighborhoods is also one more emotion.
The last hit: a very shocking ending, one of those that leaves the door open to more horror the one you no longer thought possible after the one you read. In other words, Elena Blanco and her entire team don't think it will take them long to come back. And I bet they will maintain the excellent level of this great start to the series.
My only buts are exclusively personal, of course. In literature, I don't like the time I live very much, nor do I like the everyday things of this present or this country. So I feel a curious contrast between the good of the story, its narration and characters with the little that attracts me that they move or take place in places that I know. And one of my biggest problems that, without a doubt, is very politically incorrect these days: I am more of a male protagonist. What am i going to do.