The 3 best books by Berna González Harbor

The wickers of the feminine crime novel were woven between authors such as Alicia Gimenez Bartlett, the absolute and successful pioneer, or a Berna González Harbor finally delivered also to the noir from journalism. They were anticipation and mirror in the immediate subsequent takeoff of a Dolores Redondo that would end up becoming the main author of the genre.

What is already indistinct from sex, once that unapologetic equality has been achieved in this literary genre, is the outlining of that fetish protagonist taken by each writer.

The narrative landscape in this realm of the underworld, underworld and crime is brimming with heroes, antiheroes, guilt and nemesis. And you also have to count on the necessary lukewarm characters, those who are capable of traveling on both sides with the pettiness that the human soul all too often displays.

González Harbor found in his police station Ruiz to that character on whom to pour imagination but also knowledge of cause from a real performance of a journalist who always approaches power scenarios, strangely connected at times with unfriendly spaces full of more shadows than lights ...

Top 3 recommended novels by Berna González Harbor

Claire Jones's tears

Detectives, policemen, inspectors and other protagonists of crime novels often suffer from a kind of Stockholm syndrome with their trade. The more evil the cases appear, the darker the human soul is guessed, the more attracted these characters feel with whom we enjoy so much in the crime novel.

MarĂ­a Ruiz, already an illustrious curator of the literary imagination of this country, finds herself removed from Madrid and its hectic pace of work. She is destined for Soria, where it seems that all the souls in that place live in peace and harmony, with the worn memory of an old unsolved murder as the only pending issue. And that has been more than 60 years. Maria needs more encouragement to feel alive. He has learned to dedicate his life to investigating among the social scum, where the most twisted psychopaths move. The clarity of a peaceful world generates indescribable anguish.

Having more time to spend with Tomás, his partner, even though he has been in a coma for too long, does not bring him any relief, quite the opposite ... For this reason, when a fellow commissioner asks him for help in a singular case, he cannot refuse. María travels to Santander and learns about the peculiarities of the murder of a young woman who was found dead in the trunk of a car. In the same vehicle there are clues that make up a message to the taste of the murderer on duty, who claims the immortality of his work, the justification for his finalist violence.

Santander becomes a dark city, where we are checking how the investigation progresses and MarĂ­a at the same time that we delve into the previous life of Claire Jones, the dead girl. Between both women a kind of mirror is created between yesterday and today, between their tormented souls that fit into that common space of the mirror. The author moves in this disconcerting space that unites victim and curator, with a narrative that distills mixed emotions, always participating in the black genre of this work. Undoubtedly a great story to discover and that, despite belonging to a saga, offers an absolutely independent reading.

Claire Jones's tears

Error range

Second installment of the series in which the protagonist is acquiring the look of a policeman looking out into the abyss, with that look that is always suspicious of someone who has been about to cross dangerous thresholds.

After a long convalescence from the wounds suffered in a hard melee, Commissioner Ruiz has returned. He does it the same day that a man is found dead among the hedges of the Retiro. It is autumn in a rarefied Madrid in which the protests of the indignant are mixed with news of suicides in a multinational.

The body found in the park seems to add up to this serious labor issue, and yet something is wrong. The young commissioner will sooner be drawn into a battle between what her instincts dictate and her health. She and veteran journalist Luna will be caught in a battle of an era of greed and inequality.

Error range

The dream of reason

As we advance in any police saga that revolves around a protagonist, the personal and the professional are drawing that line in zig zag from one sphere to another, from the cases that enter and the earrings that are poorly closed at times and towards the wounds that are also pending. suturing.

Commissioner Ruiz returns to Madrid to prepare her defense. The old Senior Police Chief has been suspended in revenge for an old investigation and Maria is temporarily out of the force. But that's not going to stop her. It is the month of May, time for festivities around the Manzanares River, and the appearance of some dead animals is the first indication of an anomaly that will soon leave more lethal traces: the execution of a young Art History scholar in one of the river bridges. And it will not be the only one.

The police investigate black magic, sexual harassment or sadism, but the different events begin to form a series of performances that will lead Commissioner Ruiz to Goya's legacy. Without equipment, without a uniform and without a gun, this time MarĂ­a faces a being of extreme intelligence, marked by an obsession and with a great capacity for manipulation. In his fight against time, he will visit squatters, underground tunnels and a hidden Madrid that is alien to the State.

The dream of reason, Berna González Harbor

Other interesting books by Berna González Harbor ...

El pozo

These are bad times for poetry and journalism. It is no longer a question of not letting "the truth cloud you with good news" as an argument for journalistic cynicism. The matter spreads like an all-encompassing stain. Rigor is a thing of the past and the impertinent is to get the news out immediately. It is true that everything takes on a subjective aspect in our nuanced reality. But it is not even appropriate to attend to the five basic answers, what, how, when, where and why ...

Greta Cadaqués, a television reporter, is sent to cover the case of a girl who has fallen into a well on the outskirts of Madrid. While she does not stop thinking about a trial that she has to attend as a popular jury, her camera, Juan Quatremer, and her boss, a man eager for an audience, urge her to bring to light all the details of the case of which the entire country this slope.

Although she will soon discover that the intentions of the two men are very different: Juan intends to cover the event in the most rigorous way possible, but her boss will coerce her to get the most shocking exclusives, even if it means spreading false news. Greta must face a personal and professional crossroads that will lead her to question the role of the media and the ethical limits of her work.

Un thriller that reflects on the world of journalism and fiercely criticizes media sensationalism from the fictionalized recreation of a case that monopolized Spanish media attention. The truth can be very relative depending on who is telling it and what they want to achieve with it.

The Well, Bern
5/5 - (12 votes)

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