summer in red
summer in red It is the first volume of the police series Commissioner Ruiz, written by award-winning Spanish journalist and author Berna González Harbour. The work was published for the first time in 2012 by the RBA publishing house. Later, the plot of the protagonists was extended into Error range, Claire Jones's tears y The dream of reason. The last two were finalists for the Hammett Award.
As for the summer in red, reviews from both specialists and readers are mixed. Some have enjoyed the unusual fast-paced narrative of the Black from Berna González Harbor, while others discuss what they consider a lack of depth on the part of the characters in this work. On the other hand, one of the strong points is a plot that ranges between entertaining and interesting.
Synopsis of summer in red
Madrid, summer 2010
The Iberian Peninsula celebrates the days of the Soccer World Cup. People do not lose faith while the Spanish team's tortuous advances in South Africa take place. This is the social context that prevails during 2010, but, as almost always happens in real life, There is something else in the shadows, an event that no one would expect to encounter and that, when it breaks out, it shakes society in a terrible way.
Commissioner María Ruiz and her team must face a murder, which will be just the tip of the iceberg of a more delicate situation that is related to the Catholic Church, clerical education and the minor students of these entities. At the beginning, a young boy with no traceable identity appears dead. Ruiz is accompanied by veteran journalist Luna and a talented computer scientist, Tomás.
A place in crisis
Few Spanish authors have dared to talk about the pedophilia that precedes the Catholic Church and its acolytes.. It is a delicate issue that must be addressed with the respect that victims need. In summer in red There is a phrase that could probably summarize the conflict that monastics suffer: “Our Holy Mother Church has its own rhythm, which is the rhythm of the Lord, and it has its own justice, which is the justice of God.”
The plot itself revolves around these murdered young people, which begins with two names: Samuel Gómez Pescador and Alejandro Sánchez Gandarillas. The first was previously strangled and raped in the pond of the Juan Carlos I park in Madrid. The second, a boy under seventeen years old whose body was found on a beach in Santander. He was also strangled.
Special Symbols and Scary Connections
Soon, the Commissioner Ruiz realizes that the two young people shared a very strange tattoo, in addition to a previous relationship. But who could have been responsible for such a misfortune associated with these boys? To find out, María travels to Santander, where she will have the help of Carlos Fuentes. Among them, they find some gay pornographic photographs.
In them, they recognize the faces of Alejandro along with a series of adults and young people. Thanks to obtaining these photographs, Commissioner María Ruiz plans an interview with Father Damián, who confesses to knowing the identity of the former students from Los Penitentes school. At the same time, computer scientists from Madrid check Samuel's computer, and discover that he and Alejandro were friends on Facebook.
Who is guilty?
A bit later, A sister of the victim points out a priest belonging to a school where Alejandro studied. At the same time, journalist Luna talks with Samuel's mother, and learns from her that her son and Alejandro attended a basketball campus at the Los Penitentes school in Lerma during the previous summer. There, the coordinator was a priest.
Investigating by your own means, Carlos Fuentes realizes that Alejandro was not exactly an innocent boy, but an opportunist and provocateur who blackmailed the other boys by showing the photos he himself took at the time of orgies. Meanwhile, María stays at Los Penitentes in Lerma and discovers that her main suspect is the culprit of the sexual misdeeds and their subsequent consequences.
Narrative style of Berna González Harbor
It could be said that crime novels are in fashion. In her, There is almost always a convoluted and fast-paced style that does not tend to let you rest. to the reader, in addition to having very simple prose. However, one of the most notable aspects of Berna González Harbor is her way of writing, which is much more literary than that of most novelists of black.
In the best style of Ángela Banzas in The conjuring of the mist o The shadow of the Rose, summer in red It is governed by a quite poetic narrative style for a detective book. On the other hand, unlike what is usually seen in this genre, the structure flows naturally, and you can follow it from beginning to end without stopping to look for clues in the first pages.
About the author
Berna González Harbor was born in 1965, in Santander, Spain. He studied Journalism at the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. As a journalist, She was a contributor to media outlets such as Day by day, zenda, El País, The Sun y The Newspaper of Catalonia. In the latter he was Moscow correspondent.
He debuted in the literary field with a story, with which he won the second prize of the José Hierro Prize in 1995. From then on, the author published stories and novels that, over the years, She has been awarded various awards, such as the Association of Booksellers of Cantabria, the Estrañi Award from the Association of Journalists of Cantabria and the Granada Noir festival award for her career.
Other books by Berna González Harbor
Novels
series of the Ruiz police station
- Error range (RBA, 2014);
- Claire Jones's tears (Destino Editions, 2017);
- The dream of reason (Destino Editions, 2019).
Other
- The deer arrive without warning (RBA, 2015);
- El pozo (Planet Books, 2021).