On many occasions the past can end up shaping a crime novel. Guilt or remorse can lead to the suffering of the unresolved case, that of each one's own destiny.
Hence, Florencia Etcheves' proposal contains that literary surplus of the past lurking in memory or dreams, like a morbid event that invites us to look back while reason wanted to escape forward.
In a way, the approach of this novel reminds me of the book Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra, or the movie of the same name. The past, a group of friends and a dark event that breaks with everything ... years later one of those friends is a policeman and has to face a crude reunion with everything he wants to forget.
This time she is a policewoman: Manuela Pelari, a recurring character in this writer. And through it we live the moments before and after the past disappearance of Cornelia. That was a decade ago but the debt is still valid for Manuela.
So when the protagonist discovers a slightest hint from which to relaunch the investigation, she sets about it knowing that the matter will end up stirring her from the depths of her being. In addition, the rescue of the matter will lead to new shocks on that distant group of friends who accompanied Cornelia on a playful trip to Patagonia.
From the outset he only has a reminder, an anonymously paid obituary in a newspaper. From that simple and sinister fact, the friends will have to recover old impressions, ready to overcome their fears once and for all.
The chain found by a young man in the snow, the frenzied hours that followed ... The past suddenly returns to shake the foundations of existence, in the manner of the tunik volcano, always threatening to splash lava in the inhospitable Patagonia.
You can now buy the book Cornelia, the new novel by Florencia Etcheves, here: