The 3 best books by Alexis Ravelo

The prolific Canarian writer alexis ravel he moved between several very disparate narrative registers. Although his definitive accolade came to him in a black genre in which he composed an extensive bibliography. Great works with brushstrokes of that noir sprinkled with its connotations of social criticism or even bordering on more detective approaches in which deduction once again recovers the weight of the great initial glories of the genre.

In his record, Ravelo has the Prize Café Gijón de Novela 2021, the Hammett Award, also conquered in other editions by works of greats such as Sergio Ramirez o Leonard Padura, among many others.

Plots that link the criminal with corruption; with the dark side to which some can arrive after going through the worst hells; with the ancient longing for power and money. Parallel investigations that try to shed light on the tension to discover the motives for evil. And endings that always close the pending issues with that residue of the stories that, in addition, tell something more about our own reality.

Top 3 recommended books by Alexis Ravelo

The borrowed names

Write a crime novel to alexis ravel it is to do something more sophisticated or profound. It is not about discovering the murderer or enjoying the strange morbidity of crime. Not at least as a single essence. It is a narrative capacity comparable to that Victor of the Tree always determined to tell us something else, to delve into the motivations, guilt and other burdens of the soul. On this occasion, Ravelo resorts to the dance of identities to equip a growing plot that, mutatis mutandis, warns us about the general masquerade that is life, on many occasions...

Tomás Laguna could well be a retired insurance broker who has come to Nidocuervo to calmly enjoy his retirement in the company of his dog Roco. And Marta Ferrer could pass for a translator who has found in the town the ideal place to live in peace with her son Abel. But the truth is that both are insomniac executioners who have come to that corner of the world with borrowed names, pretending that they are not who they have been until recently.

However, the balance between reality and fiction that each one has chosen for himself is so fragile that events as fortuitous as a storm or the choice of a photo for the cover of a newspaper will resurrect the ghosts of the past, returning them to their lives. a violence they hoped they had left behind forever.

Located in the mid-eighties of the twentieth century, The borrowed names It is a story of action and suspense, a modern western, a crime novel that also functions as an allegory that investigates the causes and consequences of political violence, the connection between victims and executioners, the obligatory stops that must be made. who travels the tortuous path to redemption.

Three funerals for Eladio Monroy

That first novel that bursts with force and personality in the panorama of a genre is always noteworthy. On this occasion, Eladio Monroy, the first great noir character that would later continue in a highly recommended saga, brought that freshness that always comes in handy.

The particularity of Eladio makes him a special "investigator". He is an upstart, an intruder for any guild that involves pulling any tangled rope between the most wicked of society.

Mimicking in this character, we become able to understand his sordid humor, his cynicism at times, his modus operandi oriented only to seek answers to questions from clients who want to know, suggest in any way, achieve objectives even violence through.

Hero and antihero, spy and counter spy. A libertine guy, a mercenary who gets into too much trouble too many times. On this first occasion we are in charge of a very particular order from his ex.

Not because Eladio has a special good relationship with Ana María, but because she offers him a juicy enough compensation. The problem is that, as will happen so many times in the future, Eladio is not capable of measuring forces or consequences.

And in this specific case, immersed fully in the highest social strata of the economy and politics, perhaps he would never suspect the shadows that hang from that world on him, since he is determined to fulfill his mission to the last consequences. .

The Pekingese's strategy

A criminal novel loaded with that Spanish sordidness, full of picaresque, acid humor, noisy cases that end up as a news report.

Necessity imposes its premises and El Rubio considers recovering his old criminal career to get the money necessary for that good purpose that always serves to empathize with "the bad guys." Together with El Rubio we meet Junior and El Palmera.

With the necessary hook of the prostitute Cora. They all set out to execute the meticulous as well as improvised plan to seize loot that no police could ever claim from them. Whoever robs a thief has 100 years of forgiveness.

Of course, we soon discovered how the plan did not quite reproduce itself as the best of the initial approaches. And just as the police were not going to chase them in case of complete success, they will not help them now when a criminal organization pursues them to hunt. A Tarantine story under the imposing light of the island of Gran Canaria.

Other recommended books by Alexis Ravelo…

The flowers don't bleed

A new gang and a new plan for chaos. The feeling of that last stroke idea toward glorious retirement runs through the novel about the tedious existence of Lola's gang. And the truth is that the plan takes them out of boredom, without a doubt.

But perhaps towards an action that they did not expect, a frantic adventure that does not allow to look up from the plot. As on other occasions, in Ravelo's novels, the scent of losers permeates the entire story, in turn serving as a spur for desperate characters to be capable of anything.

In this sort of idealized anti-heroes of misery and crime, they end up savoring very pleasant nuances of the tragic, of the sinister. In front of them are the others, those winners who move around the island in luxurious cars. Perhaps it is about that, about the particular contradiction that makes people from very different social strata coexist in a small space, that of the island.

The plan is simple, an express kidnapping, the kind that are in vogue. A quick rescue and a new life with the money raised. The plan points to total failure, but once again defeated and beaten by reality, none of the boys in Lola's gang will hesitate to face the situation with the necessary harshness, the same one under which they have lived since they chose the wild side of life. .