>> Readings

Crime and tradition

Las pruebas de la infamia
Joaquín Leguina

Tropismos • 2006

Javier Sánchez Zapatero
Translation: Jean Burrell

 

Since the 1990s Joaquín Leguina, who was the Socialist Party chairman of the Madrid Autonomous Community from 1983 to 1995 and currently chairs the Defence Committee of the Congreso de los Diputados (lower house of the Spanish Parliament), has combined his political duties with a huge writing effort which has seen him publish more than ten novels, various studies on economics and demography, several essays and even an atypical volume of memoirs. Though in one or other of his first books there already appeared some of the devices and elements typical of the crime genre (for example in Tu nombre envenena mis sueños, a magnificent mystery novel set in the Spanish Civil War, which was transferred to the cinema screen by Pilar Miró with excellent results), it is with his last two titles that the author has turned to the literature of crime.

With their main character Baquedano, a lawyer living in the heart of the most traditional part of Madrid, Por encima de toda sospecha (Above all suspicion) and the recent Las pruebas de la infamia (Proof of criminality) demonstrate Leguina's skill in constructing plots that depict some of the most obvious problems in contemporary societies. In his last book this critical role lies in its clear denunciation of the never-ending abuses that normally surround relations between politics and real estate deals, which are discovered by the chief character as he gradually pulls on the thread of a murder investigation. Bearing in mind Leguina's public profile and the recent political scandals linked to the construction industry that have erupted in Madrid, it is impossible not to try to read the book as if it was a roman à clef. The inclusion of real characters in the fictional world makes this interpretation still more suggestive. However, it does not matter if there are glimpses of real life behind the plot invented by the author. His desire to speak out is related to a global problem that affects the whole of society and so it is not necessary to restrict it to a concrete case with naming and shaming.

The book stands out not only because of the attraction of its theme, which is continually and regrettably topical, but also because of its style. Since the first thing that calls attention to Las pruebas de la infamia is its pleasing qualities. Written with rhythm and irony, the novel can be read at one sitting because it is short and above all riveting. Through the central figure of Badequano, around whom the whole novel turns and a cast of secondary character gravitates – for instance Maruja, his partner; Inspector Guedán or the journalist Sedano – the author plunges the reader into an intrigue in which the personal and the professional go hand in hand. This dual plot interest has the logical consequence of humanizing the book's hero whose headaches are concerned not only with the impossibility of solving the mystery but also how to deal with his commitment to his partner or the fact that his lesbian daughter is going to make him a grandfather. So, together with the lawyer's attempts to throw light on an obscure real estate intrigue, we are shown his ordinary day-to-day life unfolding almost entirely in one of Madrid's most traditional neighbourhoods, which thus turns into yet another character in the novel. Like Barcelona in Vázquez Montalbán's novels the capital stands out as a crucial piece in the book so that it is strange to imagine Badequano in any other streets than the ones in the centre of Madrid.

La pruebas de la infamia, interesting and entertaining as it is, turns out to be not only one of the most outstanding new examples of the thriving crime genre period, but also – to judge by the choral, developing nature of the book and the naturalness of its main character, who requires future deliveries of the story in order to grow and give even more of himself – a second instalment that consolidates the ‘Badequano series', which will surely provide a lot more to talk about.