Every field can be turned into a fictional setting. And the black genre is that umbrella under which a new creative universe can be sheltered that, in the case of Xabier Gutierrez has already become known as Ā«gastronomic noirĀ»(Nothing to do with some dire experiences after visits to some ominous restaurant).
Jokes aside, the idea has already been consolidated as a proposal, for the moment limited to its creator, around whose staging in the kitchen the most surprising thrillers are slowly prepared. Without a doubt an enriching combination in which the author also makes available to the genre a very extensive universe in terms of vocabulary and knowledge of the new culinary world conquered for the cause.
The culinary increasingly surrenders to sophistication without giving up pampering and dedication; to experimentation with a touch of elitism; to hedonism made fundamental sensory pleasure.
And under these premises, Xabier's literary essences surround ambitions turned into animosity, or the search for perfection turned towards madness. Without a doubt, this dichotomous presentation of dazzling lights of success against the possible shadows that always haunt everything human is a success.
For the rest, with close and powerful geographical references such as that of Dolores Redondo, the scene also accompanies per se for a disturbing narrative conjunction that points to a prompt international irruption of this renowned cook-turned-writer.
Top 3 recommended books by Xabier GutiƩrrez
The haven of butterflies
A novel with which Xabier GutiƩrrez explores new plot scenarios to plunge into a black noir with telluric derivatives, socio-political implications and a tension worthy of what is already a very remarkable performance in open-grave suspense.
At the BaƱos de Panticosa hotel, in the Aragonese Tena Valley, Valeria, a Rwandan singer, commits suicide by throwing herself into the void from her room. She was a regular customer, a woman with a hidden history whose motives for committing suicide no one could suspect. Vanessa, a botanist working for a pharmacist looking for the Edelweiss flower, is murdered in a lonely enclave nearby and buried under snow.
It is the beginning of a series of mysteries that are unleashed during one of the worst snow storms in memory in the region. Everything unravels when a private detective arrives to investigate Vanessa's disappearance, and each of the hotel employees seems to be hiding some secret.
The Rwandan genocide, African magical rituals and the legends of the Tena Valley are intertwined in a story set in a claustrophobic and isolated environment in which the weather is decisive.
Critical flavor
The image of an investigator facing one of those unsolved cases provides a first notion of complexity, of entanglement, of some kind of enigma that prevents the truth from emerging. And as you always think of the unpunished, those people protected by their social, political or gender status that can grant them some kind of privilege even in sinister matters such as murders.
The truth about the Ferni case, the one that originated from the shooting death of Ferdinand Cubillo, seems to take root in very remote matters, and perhaps that is the reason for the difficult determination of its nature. As a gastronomic critic that he was, good old Ferni could be guessed at times depending on whether he chose one side or the other of his hotel evaluations, but as if to kill ...
A year after the violent death, Vicente Parra, ertzaintza and person in charge of the case at the time, has well internalized all the information collected over months and months. It is difficult to forget a corpse that demands justice.
Thanks to this assumption of the badly closed case as something pending that resounds every day, you will soon find undeniable links in events of a similar dark nature. Vicente moves between the hopelessness of being able to confront a serial killer that he cannot be able to catch, and the hope that the criminal has manifested himself again.
But every murderer is capable of hating and killing for something. There is always an underlying motive that, ruminated in the opportune mind, serves as a shuttle for the most summary revenge. What happens today is not just a matter of the most immediate yesterday. Sometimes you have to look further back in time so that today's pieces can finally fit together.
The bouquet of fear
We are all a bit of those budding winemakers who visit wineries and let ourselves be guided by the exciting story of wine, its rest and its practically alchemical process until that final body full of flavor and aromas of the best of wines.
Precisely that aroma, that bouquet that is awakened by moving the glass seems to slide like a confusing aroma in this plot that arrived from the Rioja vineyards. The death of the oenologist Esperanza Moreno awakens a certain sinisterly metaphorical scenery between blood and wine.
Her body covered in blood after being slit may go through a beastly reaction from the ruthless murderer, but Deputy Commissioner Parra can tie up some other rope with that apparent excessive violence ...
The main suspect is Roberto, Esperanza's partner. And your search is considered essential to begin to understand what has happened. Only, as often happens on other occasions, searches should be considered by the good investigator as a path full of ramifications towards new leads.
Because the path to evil is never a straight line, and even less so in an environment so saturated by ambitions, interests and inordinate yearnings for success.
Other recommended books by Xabier Gutierrezā¦
The scent of crime
The choice of San SebastiƔn as the setting for more than one plot by this author is always an added bonus for me. On many occasions I have gotten lost in this city, always discovering new fascinating places that, with its nineteenth-century touch around its bay and the splendid nature that shelters it, certainly seems designed for a thousand and one novels.
And of course, a black fabric also has a perfect place among the darkest streets of the city, those that turn their backs to the sea and that seem to enclose themselves within its walls, welcoming mysteries.
The death of the designer Elena CastaƱo brings us closer to the dark murderous motives of ambitions and envies that you take to the extreme in worlds as competitive as fashion or gastronomy marked with stars ...
The good Vicente Parra, ertzaintza, will know how to link Elena's case with that of Cristian, whose death appears to be due to poisoning. Both deaths are linked to the same will to overcome opposition and silence voices towards the worst vainglory capable of clouding the mind towards murder.
Merci for your words, Juan