The good thing about my age is that I can reread detective novels because I already forgot who the murderer is.

(Josefa Sistac, 94 years old, my grandma)

Major archetypes

Detective fiction is best known for the hardboiled scene. Usually, mid-20th-century pessimist bachelors in L.A. reeking of cheap booze, stale coffee, and cigarettes. Chandler’s Marlowe became the patron saint of the genre for solving cases with a cynical wit and for disregarding social norms.

Crime fiction was originally less ambiguous about morals. The characters’ sophisticated manners coined the archetype term “Gentleman Detective”. Examples include Conan Doyle’s eccentric Holmes, Dame Christie’s homme d’honneur Poirot, Chesterton’s preachy Father Brown, and Poe’s aristocratic Dupin.

The only traits shared by the original detective fiction and the private eyes of modern noir fiction are their analytic skills, unbreakable sense of duty, and Anglo origin.

Sapir-Whorf & Co., Private Investigators

Detectives, police, or private, have overwhelmingly been products of the Anglo-Saxon world. Poirot and Dupin were not Anglo, but their creators were. Their stories were all published in and set in Anglophone countries, mainly England and America. Even the most famous Italian detectives, Aurelio Zen and Guido Brunetti, are the product of American authors.

The anglosphere clearly dominates the genre. Going on Kindle’s Best Seller lists shows two trends. One, most of the crime, noir, and detective authors come from the anglosphere. Two, these are still very popular genres that routinely top the charts for sales and publishing.

Anglo preponderance exists throughout multiple other media—mainly thanks to Hollywood for its movies and shows, but also through newer forms of media like podcasts. The true crime genre mixes real-life stories of the most inhumane crimes with storytelling techniques of thrillers and suspense novels.

The only other “linguistic universe” where crime fiction matches the English-speaking world is in the Nordic countries. Nordic noir or Scandi noir, in the likes of Stieg Larsson (the dude from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), gained sufficient popularity to also develop bestselling novels, TV shows, and movie,s paralleling the Anglophone world. What is it with hybristophilia and the Nordic? I guess no sunlight gets the worst out of anyone’s imagination. While Nordic noir remains reserved for those able to pronounce their names, the Anglo world continues to be the leader.

An honorable mention for the sole Francophone authority of the genre must be made for the prolific Belgian Georges Simenon. With over 400 novels, he dwarves the output of everyone else. Sadly, Francophone literature is not known for crime fiction, and Belgium is known for being boring. Perhaps characters like his Inspector Maigret or even Hergé’s Tintin make sense in a tiny country full of gray Eurocrats desperately longing for adventure.

Hispanics causing panic

While it was not always the case, Hispanic hardboiled fiction has disappeared. Hardboiled once enjoyed vast popularity in the Spanish-speaking world. What my beloved Hispanic world lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality. Today, only two big names remain standing. México’s Taibo and Cuba’s Padura are the undisputed kings of the genre. A solitary kingdom to reign over.

Noir is characterized by silently criticizing a corrupt system. The authoritarianism of the Hispanic world in the 20th century provided an apt setting for this kind of work. The founding father of the genre en español, the Spanish Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, was a clandestine communist militant during the Franco years. Montalbán even spent time behind bars, and his experiences influenced his alter ego, Pepe Carvalho, in over 20 novels. Argentina’s Ricardo Piglia added a Borgesian spin to hardboiled fiction with his detective Emilio Renzi. A country full of ups and downs, with a new dictatorship every 5-10 years, makes for the adequate setting to explore the human condition as reflected in the criminal underworld.

Today, the aforementioned Taibo and Padura continue with this tradition of showing us the reality of authoritarianism through the perspective of an investigator. Padura’s Mario Conde cracks cases in Havana while quietly revealing the common disillusionment with Castrismo. Mexico’s Taibo has based most of his novels in the 1970s during the most repressive years of the PRI hegemony.

¿Qué pasa?

Except for Cuba, the days of institutionalized state repression in the Hispanic world are long over. The new dark cloud hanging heavy over most Hispanic societies is not coming from a repressive government but from society. Crime, drug trade, and the whole “narcocultura”. As a result, a sociological reflection can be made: hardboiled did not die, but it morphed. Violence, drug violence, political violence, sexual violence, you know, the usual mix and match of Latin American and Spanish literature, transformed noir into the narco world.

Under the term neo-noir or narco novelas, this genre maintains the critical elements of hardboiled novels. It reflects a sick society, absent of morality, which prioritizes short-term goals. The role of observer and critic of a harsh reality is no longer played by a police detective or private eye investigating and exposing brutalities, but by a criminal making their way up in the underworld.

My guess is that there have been so many waves of violence and unresolved crime, it just made no sense to write about investigations. It is definitely not a sustainable business to be a detective or write about one when everyone with street smarts is expected to become a petty criminal. For authors and any type of content creators, it is evident that the exploitation of this genre makes it a leading cultural export. Narcos and Griselda are two great examples of how popular and high-grossing the genre is. The allure of quick money is just too big for a writer, the same way it is for the youth who join these criminal organizations.

A need for noir

The (de)evolution from noir to neo-noir in Hispanic literature has created a vacuum. Fans of the genre cannot find anything relatable, and there is plenty of subject matter to write about. Just imagine a detective in a police precinct of Caracas or Managua slowly realizing that they serve a morally corrupt regime. These heart-wrenching self-realizations that invite readers to reflect on their own purpose are what literary stardom is made of. Or even easier than that, Google “tourist dead in Medellin” and tell me there is not enough to write at least five detective novels. Send me a split of the royalties.

A less profound but equally worthy lesson in detective novels should be highlighted. Crime fiction teaches how to be better writers and even better journalists. Not just because of the investigative work of the characters, but because of the clarity the stories are written in.

These works are usually written with vivid descriptions that capture the essence of feelings, surroundings, actions, and psyche. Unlike the narco stuff, which simply overuses cursing, the cheapest way to express emotions in writing. Please expand your freaking vocabulary.

Noir also improves writing by structuring stories with perfectly smooth transitions. Both linear and non-linear stories can take the climax and resolution of the plot for a ride. The journalistic inverted pyramid is eternally present and uses just the right amount of detail to deliver thrills and clarity to satisfy readers and solve the case.

What will it take to rescue noir literature in the Spanish-speaking world? Better journalists? More readers? Less crime?