A new Spanish publishing house, The Tightrope Walker (El Funambulista), has as, one of its projects, the creation of a new collection of romans noirs. The editor, Max Lacruz, thereby hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father, the already legendary Mario Lacruz, a book editor and pioneer of the noir genre in Spain. Although the first titles in the collection already include a madcap and highly original roman noir translated from the French, The Translator’s Ghost Writers (Les Nègres du traducteur) by Claude Bleton, The Tightrope Walker will move closer to the genre with a specific collection whose first publication will be The Midnight Leopard by James McClure. Translated by Ramon Garcia, it will appear in May. Then in June Concierto para disparos y orquesta (A Concert for Shots and Orchestra) by Mario Lacruz will be published. This is a text rescued by his son from the mysterious cupboard where his family have found a number of previously unpublished novels.

Zeki, April 2005