A detective who is hooked
on fresh orange juice, who shares his life with a dog called Sweetie
and who occasionally has sex with Maruchi, better known as Toothless,
must be either an idle nutter or some crummy private investigator.
This is the description Lluis Gutierrez uses to introduce his character,
Basilio Cèspedes, a detective known as Humphrey.
His partner is his friend and neighbour The Galician – who has become Americanised
and is known as Billy Ray Cunqueiro; together, they run ‘Humphrey and
Cunqueiro Associates. Investigation Agency providing help to Business'.
Armed with these characters, Gutierrez emerges forcefully onto the noir scene
in Spain with Putas, diamantes y cante jondo (Hookers, Diamonds
And Flamenco Songs ), a noir fiction written in the first person
in which he tells us four red-hot stories that are full of humour, irony
and a view of the world that is both militant and sarcastic.
The narrative opens with the death of Uncle Matias, a gypsy patriarch
from the Poble Sec area of Barcelona. At the same moment,
a workman finds a stash of diamonds hidden in crates of merchandise
and a Russian soldier called Yuri Samshuck arrives in Spain to negotiate
some dodgy deals because he has been told that ‘the police is soft
and the judges are fools'. As for Billy Ray, he dreams of buying a
luxury yacht, filling it with hookers and going on a voyage with them.
Throughout this story, the two central characters – assisted by a secretary
who is pretty useless but who has a superbly curvy figure, and a retired
police sergeant called Garcia – have to deal with numerous dirty dealings,
of which you would all be well advised to steer clear.
Manuel Vasquez Montalban once said that ‘the
underworld isn't what it used to be'. Sure, but Lluis Gutierrez brings
back many of the ingredients of the classic noir thrillers
of the 70s and 80s. Without losing an ounce of its contemporary characteristics,
Gutierrez's novel is reminiscent of the old stories written by Mendez
or Miguel Varga Reinoso in Barcelona, or of the controversial behaviour
of Toni Romano in Madrid. This novel takes us back to the microcosm
inhabited by hookers, gypsies and Mafiosi, where the only place you
get information is in the bars where the hookers hang out and where
the law once more makes its presence felt – as in the
years of gangster rule – on the darkest back streets of Barcelona.
I quite agree with what Jordi Canal says in his preface: get your cosiest
armchair, a good bottle of malt whisky, American cigarettes and enjoy,
because this show comes with a guarantee.
