Argentinian crime noir? Not a term you’re familiar with I’ll be bound. But I bet you said the same at the advent of the Scandi noir phenomenon. If this novel by Paula Rodriguez is anything to go by Argentinian noir may be the next big thing.
However I experienced a bothersome paradox while reading this. Murder is no laughing matter and this story deals with some serious issues, but I found threads of humour running through the story. A black comedy noir maybe?
The title derives from Saint Expeditus, the patron saint of……. urgent matters….. and this Christian martyr could almost be considered as another character in the story. In truth I found it hard to warm to any of the characters, except maybe Evelyn suffering those dilemmas of puberty that provoke sometimes inappropriate responses and actions. But I’m wondering if this was intentional on the part of the author? One of the other characters I enjoyed though was Monica. The paradox was a fine balance of comedy and sobriety. The characterisations are all solid and drive the narrative forward.
Hugo, partner of Marta, father of Evelyn, is on the run for murder. But he happens to be on a train which crashes in Buenos Aires. He escapes the wreckage. No one is sure if he’s dead or alive including those closest to him. The novel revolves around the investigation involving the police, his family, the local mafia and considers how corruption seems to be at the heart of all and impacts on whether justice can ever, ultimately, be served.
A spiders web of characters react and interact across the novel which is admirably translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses who has retained the South American flavour of the prose and with the author create a palpable picture of Argentina.
The novel exposes the shortcomings of the media and the police that in turn lay bare the frailties and the egos of those affected by the entire situation. But there are no neat resolutions at the end of the novel either, the reader is left to ponder the outcomes of subtly implied conclusions. I found it absorbing and quite compelling in places, disjointed in others, as indeed life can be, especially when people are propelled into extreme circumstances.
It’s a promising debut novel from an erstwhile journalist and writer who has confined herself to non-fiction up to this point and I await her future work with interest.
My thanks to Pushkin Press for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.
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