La aventura del tocador de señoras by Eduardo Mendoza***

Reading dates: 29 January – 19 February 2016

I do like reading mediterranean comic crime fiction. Mendoza is in the same vein as Montalbán or Camilleri with, perhaps, higher language skills. Some of his words and comic turn of phrases are wonderful, as is some of the nonsense. Yet, the book left me empty. The story is nothing more than what the title alludes to: an adventure, a narrative or an anecdote. The message? Not much I am afraid. No grand plan other than its enjoyment. I am not sure how much its images will persist in my mind in the way David Peace’s quartet has. Still, Mendoza’s prose was good escapism, not totally worthless due to his literary ability and the fact that the genre of literary comic crime fiction is an impossible one.