This week the psychologist gives us an interview, criminologist and writer Vicente Garrido Genovés (Valencia, 1958). Doctor in Psychology and Graduate in Criminology, He is one of the pioneers and the most recognized authorities in the field of violent criminology.. He has been a consultant to the United Nations and has advised the Police and the Administration of Justice in different cases., developing the profile that helped capture the multiple murderer Joaquín Ferrándiz. His published books include: The murderer's trail, Face to face with the psychopath, The tyrant children y Criminal profiles. Together with Nieves Abarca he has published several books, latest, why we asked, es Tosca's kiss (Editions B). Gines J. VERA
The protagonist of Tosca's kisshe is a baritone; It must be recognized that it is not the (typical) profession that one expects to find when opening the pages of a novel of this genre. How did you and Nieves come to this character and what did you take into account when it came to universalizethe world of opera for all audiences/readers?
Nieves is very fond of opera, and I suggested to him in a conversation that we should put it in a thriller, because in opera scripts there is a lot of melodrama and the demons behind the large criminal enterprises flourish.. That is to say, Anyone can understand that Tosca murders her tormentor, which makes the audience have a very operatic feeling, even if I don't know it.
When laying out the plot, What resources do they both use, taking into account on the one hand the different subplots and, for another, that have to be coordinated by four hands several hundred kilometers away? We denote the tragedy, the betrayals, the abuses of power… How do we hybridize, mentally, the opera, boxing, with the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona or the white slave trade, For example?
More than any other, This novel is designed for the reader's enjoyment., It's a roller coaster, and we set ourselves the challenge of creating plots that in principle do not have to be related, but given the psychology and life of the characters in the end they had a point in common. I think we have achieved it after much discussion, some anger and a very fine script work.
Crime novels are often associated with social denunciation.. But in this case, as in previous novels, Tosca's Kiss is more of a thriller novel in which primary human feelings emerge., the fear, the anguish, the psychological versus the sociological, Isn't that so?
That's how it is, we are not looking to report anything; It is the reader who must draw their conclusions.; characters are defined by their actions, hence there are hardly any downtimes. If the novel captures the reader and forces him to look at unpleasant places in the human soul, he will have no choice but to position himself before that reality.. We want the reader to think through suspense and unbridled action but always appropriate to what the characters experience..
In Tosca's kiss, perhaps as in the previous novels written with Nieves Abarca, no need to ask what is more important: whether the plot or the plot. The substance is this and the characters revolve around it: the good and the bad. Is it so? Which ones come first?, the good ones, the bad ones or on par?
The plot defines the characters, Yeah, but these must be solid, important. We are not interested in action or suspense as mere artifice, but as elements of a process that explains the characters who suffer from it or cause it. I couldn't tell you if the bad guys or the good guys are the first to come out of our imagination.… With the saga of Valentina Negro it was clear that she generated her entire fictional universe, here probably, if I stop to think about it, was one of the bad ones: Berto Areces.
