Bruno Blog

On mai no creix l’herba, a mad and sordid portrait of the world around us

How many times have we heard someone saying that the weather man never gets it right?

That’s what Marc Farré, former owner of a ski resort in the Pyrenees, must have thought when he decided to kill the most famous meteorologist in the country. And he won’t stop there… Within a few days, the veteran commissioner Jaume Fuster, whom we already know from his investigation in El país dels crepuscles (crims.cat n.º 6), will have on his desk the murders of two meteorologists from the same channel.

Around the same time, in the district of La Verneda in Barcelona, Ariadna and her gang, who control every move in the area and impose their law and order, receive a very special commission: to rob a house in the Olympic Town. Lots of money and the promise of revenge can tip the scales.

Simultaneously, a neonazi gang turns up to steal the Virgin of Montserrat with a very Machiavellian scheme.

With this cocktail of characters and interlaced plots, spurred by a trully psychotic atmosphere and seasoned with the sharpest critique of the Catalan political scene, Sebastià Bennasar returns to the thrillers collection crims.cat, this time to present superbly a mad and sordid portrait of the world around us, where we live.

The cold has started to arrive at la Vall de Boí. And with the first snow has also arrived an implacable murderer that is leaving tortured and martyred corpses in the churches which are World Heritage. The inspector Jaume Fuster –a man who does not fear anything- will have to face old medieval superstitions among the white beauty of the valley, where everything returns, even the wolves. A novel that takes us to one of the most splendid landscapes in the Catalan countries, under an intense freezing Nordic atmosphere combined with Mediterranean echoes and the North-American violence.

Sebastià Bennasar offers us in this book a profound and complete essay about the Catalan noir novel, its authors, its settings and references, and also the deep social changes that have contributed to the current boom of this genre in Catalonia. Bennasar analyzes more than one hundred titles and talks about emblematic writers of this kind of literature such as Pep Coll, Jordi de Manuel, Teresa Solana, Ferran Torrent, Jordi Cervera, Carles Porta, Xavier Bosch, Andreu Martín, Albert Salvadó, Rafael Vallbona, Margarida Aritzeta, Lluís Llort, Pep Blay, Joan Agut and more. This book is without doubt the most serious piece of work ever done about noir genre in Catalan literature between the end of the XXth century and the beginning of the XXIth. Besides, this title facilitates a complementary and exhaustive list with authors, published books and films related to the genre.

Esteve Ruscalleda, inspector of the Court of Berga, arrives at Can Bartet Colony to investigate the murder of the priest’s butler. Through interviews, conversations and observation, Ruscalleda discovers an inbreeding universe, full of gossips and dominated by flawed relationships. The killer can virtually be anyone… The victim, Anselma, was a malicious hearsay woman that had discovered and spread shameful secrets of many of the residents of the colony, so she had gained many enemies. Without any leads, inspector Ruscalleda will have to find the murderer before he acts again.

In a wintry Barcelona, Jaume Fuster returns to the city to join up the Homicide Unit of the Mossos de Esquadra, the Catalan police. And as soon as the protagonist arrives to his new destination, will be involved in a high complex case with a beheaded policeman. Behind the murder, a plan plotted by the Catalan bourgeoisie in alliance with the extreme rightwing to kill the FC Barcelona president. Prostitutes, hit men and journalists complete this gallery of characters that shows the putrefaction of our society.