The trio of writers return after winning the Planet with ‘Las madres’, a noir novel that mimics situations of extreme violence
Aware that gore exerts an irresistible fascination on the reader, Carmen Mola once again treats her readers to macabre and horrifying scenes. In ‘Las madres’ (Alfaguara), the fourth part of the series starring Inspector Elena Blanco, the three writers behind the pseudonym -Antonio Mercero, Agustín Martínez and Jorge Díaz- examine the phenomenon of wombs for rent and the police corruption. “All of our novels are about extreme violence and when it comes to portraying it, we don’t want to be squeamish,” they explain.
The irrational beast that is man at times can carry out terrifying plans. The trio of storytellers and screenwriters know this all too well, and in this fourth installment of the ‘The Gypsy Bride’ series, they provide an attractive bait that binds the reader to the pages like a magnet. “The gore creates an abyss where you panic so much that you become a ‘voyeur’, thinking about what could happen to you and never wanting it to happen. The images of the concentration camps are so powerful that they startle you,” argues that triple voice that is Carmen Mola.
In this new story, Inspector Blanco is confronted with a disturbing crime. A van dispels a sickening smell. Inside, a man is strapped to a chair with a raw seam running from the pubic bone to the abdomen. Initial autopsy results show that the victim had some organs removed and a fetus of nearly seven months placed in her womb. With this wickerwork, Mercero, Martínez and Díaz weave a story that delves into the mafia of rented wombs, a whole frieze of horrors in which Santería, a terrible avenging angel and a police group committed to extortion break. “Anything to do with surrogacy raised a moral doubt in us. We didn’t want to make a novel that would set a chair. We tried to learn something that might not come close to Spanish, but that happens further afield».
Carmen Mola introduces the figure of the infiltrator into the plot, in this case a woman who renounces her identity and pretends to be someone else, ultimately turning her into a traitor. The novel is a kind of parable in which the woman’s body becomes a commodity and the subject of bullying, beatings, kidnappings, forced pregnancies and murders. Do the members of the Carmen Mola collective set limits when it comes to taking on the most horrific situations? “We don’t want to set limits, but it’s true that sometimes we suppress ourselves. We cut a chapter that seemed overdone. Carmen Mola doesn’t investigate violence, she investigates evil. At the same time, we took the opportunity to propose certain dilemmas: Would I be able to do something terrible to save my son?
After winning the Planeta Prize with ‘The Beast’, a milestone that revealed who was hiding under the pseudonym, the writers return to the publishing house that saw the birth of their first collective works, Alfaguara, which contains at least one more criminal novel. will publish in the saga, consisting of ‘The gypsy bride’, ‘The purple network’ and ‘La Nena’.
A few days after the premiere on Atresplayer of the television series ‘La novia gitana’, a production directed by Paco Cabezas and starring Nerea Barros, the team of novelists is pleased with the result and assures that they “have it a lot” . However, there are decisions they don’t quite agree with, and that Antonio Mercero has been one of the co-directors of the script. They believe that Nerea Barros does a “fantastic job”, despite the fact that the inspector in the novel is fifty years old and carries some wounds from the past, which causes some extra wrinkles, while in the series the actress is 40 years old. years old. . “There is a director who is in charge, he is very good at ordering and changing what he thinks is necessary to change,” they say to adhere to the director’s autonomy.
The three act as a well-coordinated team of writers. Each has its strengths._Mercero stands out for its brilliant sentences and Martínez for its plot twists. They live with their backs to the criticism of some feminists who attacked an alleged female “identity takeover” when they won the planet. “We’ve been to half the world and half Spain and no one has given us a bad face,” they say.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
