Showing posts with label Eduardo Mendoza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eduardo Mendoza. Show all posts

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Eduardo Mendoza

I've just added a new-to-me Spanish author to the Euro Crime database. Telegram Books appear to be translating Eduardo Mendoza's trilogy about a detective in a mental asylum: The Mystery of the Enchanted Crypt was published in October 2008 and the follow-up, The Olive Labyrinth, is scheduled for October 2011.

Released from an asylum to help with a police enquiry, the quick–witted and foul–smelling narrator delves deep into the underworld of 1970s Barcelona to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl from a convent school.

Helped only by his ageing prostitute sister and the voluptuous nymphomaniac, Mercedes, the narrator's investigations take him deeper into a mystery involving murdered sailors, suicidal daughters, a web of organised crime and a secret, underground crypt.

Our hero, Gonewiththewind, has once again been released by the police from a lunatic asylum in Barcelona. The last time he helped solve the mystery of an enchanted crypt and a missing girl, only to find himself once more incarcerated. This time his mission is to recover a briefcase filled with money lost under very peculiar circumstances …

Mysteries and mishaps follow each other at breakneck speed, as the hapless detective delves beyond humour and the absurd to the frontiers of the truly surreal.

A brilliant send-up of the detective genre and of Spanish society, The Olive Labyrinth promises to have you in stitches.

Both titles are translated by Nick Caistor.