The evolution of Inspector Falcón
In his gripping new novel, "The Ignorance of Blood" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Robert Wilson concludes the exceptionally fine Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón series that he began in 2003 with "The Blind Man of Seville." Here Falcón, still haunted by an unsolved terrorist bombing in Seville, investigates a Russian mafia case that quickly ensnares those he loves. Soon crimes of the past and the present coincide in a subtle plot involving gangsters, espionage agents, extremists and, of course, the innocent.
Wilson, the author of nine previous novels and a graduate of Oxford University, has lived in Greece and West Africa. He spoke from his home in Portugal.
Q. Has the Russian mafia theme interested you for some time?
A. Yes. When I visited Prague in 2002, I realized that the city center was in their hands - there were casinos, prostitutes, protection rackets - and I thought "This could happen in Seville." The mafia is already prominent on the Costa del Sol in people trafficking, drugs, renting out women for housework and sex, laundering money through construction projects.
Q. Did that subject affect your style?
A. It dictated at times a more physical and brutal style of writing. There is one particular killing in this novel that some readers found incredibly violent. But you never see any violence. You see Javier . . .discovering the body; you see the victim being taken away earlier, but there's no actual violence. Everything is created by the reader. The brutality is also balanced out by the novel's other major theme, the Yacoub Douri story, which is told in almost an intellectual style.
Q. When we spoke three years ago, you mentioned that Judge Calderon would be the next character in the psychologist's chair. What changed?
A. There were four of those scenes, but it was decided that they slowed things down. Now a conversation between Javier and Calderon sums up the therapy he has undergone, whereas I had envisaged lengthier moments of reflection. But that's when someone points out "Rob, you're writing a thriller. Pull yourself together."
Q. Was it difficult to compress past information?
A. That was a lot of work; teasing in the back story without affecting the flow. An excess of that creates dead sections that you don't want at the beginning of a book. I got away with it, I think, although some readers may find it a bit of a chew. But this was always meant to be a quartet of interlocking books, not a series. You start with the first and finish with the fourth.
Q. And the plots must be interlinked?
A. I don't think of plot in that way; I think in terms of the major characters. So "The Blind Man of Seville" is the breakdown of Falcón; "The Vanished Hands" is his re-building; "The Hidden Assassins" is the consolidation of his character. This last book attempts to fill the emotional void created by his personal history. . . .
Q. But this plot is so intricate; you must outline it somehow?
A. I spend a great deal of time not planning things but thinking them through, asking myself "Can I get a reader to believe this? What about this?" I just keep imagining and re-imagining. And I'm never sure it's quite good enough. Did you read "A Small Death in Lisbon?"
Q. Yes.
A. I don't think I pulled it off as well there as I might have if I'd really thought it through. With these books, I'm more experienced, I know readers' tolerance levels. The most difficult scene to write here was the one that brings the mayor's party, the Russian gangsters, the developers and others together. It took me about three weeks to work out how to get them into the right positions at the right time. I wondered why the hell I was doing this to myself.
Q. How does it feel to end this quartet?
A. Falcón wasn't in a good state when I first came across him; we've been through this colossal journey together and I think he's in a better place than he was. That doesn't mean I'm finished with him; I could revive him but probably not in Seville and not as a policeman. In this novel he's asked if he's ever thought of doing intelligence work. So that's a possibility. But I'm working on a London book now.
Q. Javier travels briefly to London. Did that entice you?
A. That's when I thought about getting back to writing English characters; something I haven't done for a long time. I enjoyed suddenly switching off this Spanish cultural filter I employ and portraying the English sense of humor. I'm going to London to do some research and I'll start writing after the summer. But London is a challenge. Quite often in crime novels located there you're not aware of the city itself, perhaps because it's too difficult to encapsulate. Whereas Seville is almost a character in the Falcón novels.
Q. Why "The Ignorance of Blood"?
A. This novel is largely about blood ties, the significance we attach to them. Yet blood just circulates through us, it doesn't know anything, we imbue it with this power. And once it's spilled it becomes even more powerful.
Anna Mundow, a freelance journalist living in Central Massachusetts, is a correspondent for the Irish Times. She can be reached at ama1668@hotmail.com. 