The accusation of rape hangs in the air because of one sentence, with suspicion and doubt that it is very difficult to establish the pure, unique truth of what is and what is not, and the evidence causes us to interpret the truth from ourselves. acknowledges this lack of evidence. Carlos Rubio is innocent because he cannot be proven guilty or innocent.
And from here begins La carne del cisne (Siruela, 2023), a novel by Teresa Cardona; this novel will be presented on Thursday, February 1, in the meeting hall of the Shoe Museum, an event sponsored by the Elda City Council. Different cultural associations are involved, including Elda University Headquarters. While reading it, I once again enjoyed the author’s narrative art and once again experienced a part of life, that nothing is as it seems, through its three features: a social problem as the thematic core: sexist rape; the importance of the biography of the characters, as we are the result of our past; and also the linguistic question of the significance of the story, which dominates and why, which is clearly linked to the metaphor of the title.
Lieutenant Blecker and Brigadier General Cano face a new murder in San Lorenzo del Escorial (already a dangerous town since we published three novels in two publishing years). Patricia Mata, a young woman with a distinct past, appears to have been raped and murdered in her home. Based on this fact, the investigation begins to solve the case. Teresa Cardona activates the narrative construction of the story by simultaneously telling the story of the characters in 2013 and the novel’s present, 2016, through the fragmentation and non-linearity of narrative time and the inclusion of characters/narrators. People like the father, the mother, César’s lawyer, Patricia’s boss, who in their interventions describe and criticize how both the police and the media approach the issue, revealing all the prejudices and approaches to such an enormous subject. All this is always designed to stimulate the intrigue and progress of the story and is based on the interest of readers in the judgment of the author, who is not always wrong.
The pair of civil guards continues to work excellently. We already know her from the previous two novels, and now, in addition to revealing something about her private life (surprising since the explicit sex scene with someone who could be a new illusion for the lieutenant is the only one) and everyday life. What it means to wander around the town’s hair salon, shops and bars, and the things they eat (churros, hamburgers, beer…) also become spokespersons for the issue raised in the novel. Although, in keeping with the same theme, the characters feature first and foremost the figure of the omniscient narrator, this adjective is never better used; It aseptically describes what actually happened in both the first rape and subsequent rape and murder. . And it is at this moment that the reader, through the skill of the author, becomes fully aware of what is happening in both cases.
The narrative technique displayed throughout the novel is carried out by Teresa Cardona with an effective command of the sentence syntax, as it is adapted to a specific narrative moment and character, that is, with a syntactic decency since the sentence is very effective. such as the very long and complex expression that the narrator sometimes uses (p.79).
So why should you read this novel? Since it is a good example of a detective novel in terms of both the construction of the plot and the treatment of the characters; Because although the ultimate goal is to enable the reader to enjoy reading a novel of sorts, it goes a little further and teaches us how to interpret the society we live in through a very interesting comprehensive reading exercise; This “plus” is what we always find in Teresa Cardona’s novels.