The assumption that good crime fiction must have added value in education and reveal something about the state of society is widespread.

Eloísa Díaz, born in Madrid in 1986 and a lawyer by profession, also seems to support the idea that literature should not only entertain, but should also be useful.

That is why in her novel "1981" she combines skillfully constructed moments of tension with a history lesson on the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.

Kai Spanke

Editor in the features section.

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Nothing speaks against a turbulent historical background.

As long as the story is driven by actions and dialogues, not by classifications by the narrator.

Had Díaz, whose Argentine parents fled to Spain before the dictatorship, never left their characters, she would have made a brilliant debut.

Unfortunately, however, she seldom heeded the motto “Show, don't tell”.

How to make people disappear

She wonderfully describes how the police chief teaches the newcomers what to look out for during interrogation: “'Fear gives off a smell,' he said and enjoyed every word. , A very characteristic one. And not one that you would ever want to send out yourself. You just have to. . . ' , he had stretched his nose as if he was sniffing the air,, smell. And then find out what makes the person exude it. '"

Díaz counters such passages with bloodless speeches.

Regarding the “Enforced Disappearance Procedure”, “First of all, the police station closest to the target person's home was informed of an impending intervention by means of a telex signed by a senior naval officer.

.

.

.

Next, the radio operator who had been in on the matter gave a nearby patrol car the dubious honor of combing the area in advance.

.

. ”So it goes on step by step.

A dead woman and a missing woman

The action is divided into two strands.

The first takes place in 1981. Inspector Joaquín Alzada tried to lead a reasonably peaceful life during the dictatorship.

But when his politically rebellious brother Jorge disappears, the silence is over.

Alzada goes looking for him, gets too close to the military junta and blocks all career opportunities.

Twenty years later, we are in the second line of the story, he can hardly wait for his retirement to begin.

The economy is in crisis and the anger of those who have been left behind is concentrated on the streets of Buenos Aires.

Then a woman's lifeless body is found in a dumpster.

Coincidentally, at the same time, a married couple reports a female family member as missing.

From Karl to Groucho Marx

That leaves us with two cases, which are possibly just one case. What Díaz makes of it is extremely interesting. At the beginning of the novel, the mystery of the dead and the missing woman serves as a plot accelerator. In the further course it plays an increasingly less important role. In the end, it doesn't really matter because the character study of the protagonist is the real heart of the plot. So that the reader does not miss any of Alzada's thoughts, Alzada's thoughts are italicized throughout the text. It works differently, sometimes one gets the impression that the man is a phrase giver and nowhere feels as at home as in the rubble desert of worn-out terms: "How times have changed."

Do you really have that? Or do they repeat themselves all the time? The question of whether history runs in cycles, i.e. whether the unrest of 2001 heralded a new edition of the dictatorship, resonates on each side. Regardless of the answer, according to Jorge, people are needed to keep the fire of idealism burning. He once brings the following quote: "I have iron principles - if you don't like them, I have others too." That is dangerous and comes from Marx. “Karl?” Asks Alzada. “Groucho,” replies Jorge. Both were revolutionary. Remember Jack Lemmon who said that the Marx Brothers are to humor what Karl Marx is to political philosophy. But this really only marginally, because in reviews, just like in detective novels, one should be sparing with educational ballast.

Eloísa Díaz: "1981". Detective novel.

Translated from the English by Mayela Gerhardt. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 2021. 320 pp., Hardcover, 23 euros.