Ana (Planet, 2017) is a novel by Roberto Santiago turned into a television series by RTVE. In fact, the audiovisual product is known as Ana Tramel: the game. From here the novel has been popularized with this title as well.
Ana is a criminal lawyer whose past of splendor only remains the memory. She now, for a personal matter, she will return to the scene and interfere in the world of gambling. Ana is a thriller about the dangers of gambling and the secrets the industry hides.
Ana: the dangers of the game
The power of the industry
Ana Tramel is a former criminal lawyer who came to work in the best law firms, and defend the most coveted cases. A matter from her past led her to what she has become today: a middling lawyer who survives on alcohol and other substances. She does it to endure an existence that keeps her away from reality. However, the bitterness in which she is immersed is transformed into a new opportunity thanks to the call for help from a brother with whom she has lost contact for years.
Alejandro needs her because he has been accused of killing Menéndez Pons, director of the Casino Gran Castilla. Everything starts up and with the help and company of her former boss, Concha, an exhausted researcher, a recently graduated lawyer and an intern with gambling problems, she will return to the legal profession to protect her brother, impose her sense of justice, and, above all, to demonstrate that she continues to be more active and competent than ever.
The main theme of the novel is gambling houses and the world that revolves around them: gambling, the corporation and the intricacies of the industry, the secrets and conspiracies of the big shots and their henchmen... The violence and economic interest that are the result of a business as powerful as this will be key in the story. which can also be read as a denunciation of how harmful and pernicious gambling can be if you become addicted. Because we must not forget that gambling, like tobacco or alcohol, are legal occupations that are supported by society and governments.
A thriller with hook
Ana's character is undoubtedly the star of the book. She is a strong character, fierce in court and fragile in the corners of her house. She is a woman who has suffered a lot, but who has great determination, courage, cynicism, and a peculiar sense of justice.. Justice because she does, since she is a lawyer, and the justice that she seeks for her brother. Although the most important thing is that she wants to make up for her past mistakes and for a life that until recently had become insignificant, empty, being herself the one who had fallen into addiction.
Her voice narrates the story of this book and she will be the one to give all the clues about what is to come, in addition to discovering an original female lead character. with whom it will be a pleasure to share hours of reading. Although she is the undisputed protagonist of the novel, she will be accompanied by a diverse group of characters that will only enrich the story, the main plot, as well as the subplots.
And after an exciting plot, with thousands of twists, the ending is strong and is at the level of a novel of more than 800 pages. The author carefully weaves the story and does not let us see how it ends until the very end.. So Ana It is one of those books for those who love intriguing and engaging stories from beginning to end. A thriller Spanish at the height of a born narrator, such as Roberto Santiago, written in short chapters and with the expected precision, which comforts reading and does not overwhelm.
Conclusions
Ana is a thriller judicial system that unravels the mechanisms of the penal system, attracting the reader to the world of LawAlthough this may seem difficult. The author outlines the procedures in a simplified, but credible way, so that the reader does not get bored, on the contrary, so that they enjoy the process without realizing the specialized world that the writer guides them to enjoy a first-person narrative that is quite visual and does not leave time to take a breath. the main character, Ana, and the small group that accompanies her will be another strong point of a novel that has disappointed few.
About the Author
Roberto Santiago (Madrid, 1968) is, in addition to being a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. She studied Image and Sound at the Complutense University of Madrid and everyone remembers comedy The longest penalty in the world, one of the many films directed by him. In addition, he has been in charge of writing the television series Ana Tramel. The game.
He has received the Cervantes Chico Award in 2021 for his long career as an author of stories for children and young people., for which he has published various titles, including the series The footballers. And recently he has won the Fernando Lara Prize awarded by the editorial Planet for his novel The rebellion of the good. This book, along with Ana, are the only two novels that, for the moment, the Madrid author has dedicated to an adult audience.