El rol del Roc
A spate of mysterious disappearances of pensioners is devastating the Horta neighbourhood of Barcelona. Màrius Serra is back with his crime-play series starring Oriol Comas i Coma.
The Horta neighbourhood of Barcelona is hit by a spate of disappearances of pensioners who are leaving retirement homes never to be seen again. Meanwhile the Catalan police—the Mossos—arrest a role-playing member of the Devils of Horta group, who has impersonated his grandfather in order to get his pension and is suspected of having something to do with the disappearances. Their detainee is a close friend of the latest admirer of Sol who, with her increasingly complicated love life—and a couple of satellites—keeps working for her uncle Oriol. Comas, who is close to retirement age, has decided to bequeath his collection of three thousand table games, three thousand books, and one thousand three hundred game magazines to the Library Service. This keeps him anxious and busy but he can’t resist helping Commissioner Carmony to solve the case of the disappearing pensioners.
Against a background of social tension amongst young generations who are feeling the effects of lack of opportunities, Màrius Serra combines the intrigue of a crime novel, witty humour, and the world of table games when he brings his crime-play fiction to the neighbourhood of Horta, which emerges as a leading player itself with its combative and bustling social fabric, but also shops with backrooms that are more sinister than they seem.
