Delitto imperfetto

Borja and Eduard #1

by Teresa Solana, Barbara Bertoni (Translator)

Un omicidio un po’ inutile, quanto meno sproporzionato agli scopi, che alla fin fine mette tutto a posto; vittima una donna malvagia, ma nemmeno tanto; finito per caso tra i piedi di due gemelli opposti in tutto (dalla politica, allo stile di vita, ai gusti alimentari) che hanno dalla loro zero esperienza ma soprattutto la scarsissima voglia della polizia di venirne a capo. Eduardo e Borja dirigono una specie di agenzia che si occupa di sbrigare le faccende poco limpide dei ricconi. Si presenta un giorno un importante politico destinato a una carriera di governo, che chiede di occuparsi del mistero del quadro di un noto pittore che ritrae sua moglie. Un caso di adulterio? I due dilettanti cominciano a battere la pista, tra salotti e club esclusivi, quando la signora viene trovata cadavere, avvelenata. Ed essi svogliatamente indagano, con aperta incompetenza, baldanzosa o timida secondo l’opposizione dei caratteri. Delitto imperfetto, parafrasa il titolo dal film di Hitchcock. Ironicamente: perché l’imperfezione non sta tanto nell’errore del colpevole, quanto nel fatto che il delitto, alla Woody Allen, paga, e quindi è improprio il giallo che lo racconta, in parte romanzo di costume o commedia (come l’ha definita la critica). Da un canto segue l’indagine dei due gemelli nei quartieri alti di Barcellona, ma d’altro canto racconta la vita dei due Starsky e Hutch, piccolo borghesi dell’epoca nostra, travet non poveri non sradicati ma irresistibilmente precari, dentro fino al collo, con i loro amici e le loro famiglie, all’economia immateriale fittizia e flessibile e alla società ordinariamente destrutturata che ne deriva. L’autrice, la catalana Solana, con questo libro ha creato un genere e due personaggi, giunti oggi al secondo romanzo, salutata come una rivelazione, soprattutto per il sarcasmo, voluttuosamente contemporaneo con cui fa viaggiare i due piccolo borghesi dell’età globale dentro il mondo separato dell’aristocrazia del denaro.

Genres: Mystery, Spain, Crime, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, School, Novels

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Teresa Solana lives in Barcelona. Born in 1962, she studied philosophy and worked as a literary translator and essayist. She has written several novels kept quietly in her drawer. A Not So Perfect Crime, her first published title, won the 2007 Brigada 21 Prize for the best Catalan mystery novel.

Reviews

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first one from the series, better than the others, as the first one hundred pages are more than ok, the plot has some deepness and the final is both unexpected and healthful.
Somehow strangely, Borha is the more sympathetic character, smart, resourceful and polite, in contrast to Eduard, the narrator , who is shy, clumsy enough and uxorious.
So, A Not So... is neither a masterpiece, nor a waste of time.

[Loredana Mariana Bublitchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

”O crimă imperfectă” este un thriller captivant, chiar dacă este lipsit de scenele terifiante, ce se regăsesc în cărțile de acest gen de obicei, iar dacă la asta vă așteptați, veți fi dezamăgiți, în schimb, vă surprinde cu o poveste din înalta societate, încărcată de secrete, unde nimeni nu e ceea ce pare a fi, numeroase replici amuzante, rupte din viața de zi cu zi chiar, dar și cu un caz plin de semne de întrebare și un deznodământ neașteptat...nicio crimă nu este ”perfectă” și niciodată să nu-i subestimezi pe cei neînsemnați, ei contează foarte mult și fac diferența...

https://bookwormsinacozycorner.home.b...

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a pleasant surprise! I knew nothing about this author and only picked up the book because I was looking for something to read with a Barcelona setting, in preparation for an upcoming trip to the city. I've now ordered the next two in the series. Eduard and Borja, who are brothers but not brothers, are private detectives, but not private detectives, and they stumble their way through a very convincing plot of political and social intrigue. It's with a droll sense of humor that Teresa Solana has given us a mystery series that will delight both fans of the cozy and urban mystery.

[Nancy Oakes]

3.5 stars.

A Not So Perfect Crime is the first of three in a series of novels featuring twin brothers Eduard Martínez Estivill and Jose Martínez Estivill, the latter known as Borja Masdéu-Canals Sáez de Astorga to everyone but his brother, who knows him as Pep. Eduard hasn't even told his wife about the true identity of his brother, and the two of them constitute Frau Consultants, a private "detective" agency with false office doors and a secretary who's always away when their clients come to see them at the office. They cater to the social elite of Barcelona, people with problems and a lot of money that insures that their problems are handled discreetly. This series opener finds the two working for an MP who wants to know if the man who painted his wife's portrait is also having an affair with her. While the book brought occasional smiles to my face because of the many crazy situations in which the two find themselves, the entire crime and its solution could have been achieved in half the space, as there is much more emphasis on developing the characters, setting the social-class scene and keeping the gags going throughout the novel. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- the characters are fun and well established by the end of the story; I can sense this series is going to be interesting as time goes by.

MP Lluis Font calls in the brothers to find out whether or not his wife his having an affair with the man who painted her portrait. While investigating the artist, they discover that there are a few things that Font hasn't told them -- namely, that he's having an affair of his own, one that literally crashes down onto them. But when la Seňora Font turns up dead, Eduard begins to realize that perhaps this case is more than he and Borja are prepared to handle.

A Not So Perfect Crime is a good mix of a mystery to be solved, well-developed main characters and a look at Barcelona society. As the story begins to wind down, there is a decent solution to the crime, one that fits with clues gathered throughout the book. There are plenty of suspects to keep things lively and interesting and when the action is focused on the brothers' investigation, the story moves at a good pace. The brothers are funny -- they're so different from each other that it keeps things interesting. Borja is being kept in luxury by his mistress while Eduard often wonders how he and his wife are going to pay the bills. Montse, Eduard's wife, is also a well-drawn character, putting up with Eduard when his problems usually stem from the antics of his brother. The scrapes that the two get themselves into (generally of Borja's making) are entertaining as is watching them escape their collective predicament. The focus on Barcelona's higher-class levels of society are also interesting...it is a world where money can buy pretty much anything, where gossip or idle talk can kill careers or make things uncomfortable, where moral scruples are difficult to find, and where only the best will do. This is, of course, contrasted to the world of the regular people -- where bills pile up and people have to make a living. The author does a very good job of putting the two side by side so that the reader gets a feel for how the rich and powerful spend their days and how they're often able to manipulate others behind the scenes.

My issue with this book is that there is a lot of stuff in here that could easily have been left out, making for a tighter, less wordy and even at times rambling story. I didn't care about Borja's adventures with Eduard's sister-in-law, for example; nor did it matter to me about Eduard's previous love affair in Paris. There's more of this kind of thing here, but lots of little things that are meant to go into character development sometimes divert attention away from the crime and its solution, making skimming seem like a good idea in some parts. I will hopefully expect that when I get to Ms. Solana's next book, Shortcut to Paradise, that less backstory will be necessary and that more focus is placed on the brothers' escapades while solving whatever crime in which they become embroiled.

Overall, A Not So Perfect Crime turned out to be an entertaining novel, and a fine first foray into what I hope will turn out to be a very good crime-fiction series. Definitely recommended!

[Oriol Espinosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

M'ha sorprès. Curt i original, dos germans falsants, que fan veure que tenen una agència de detectius quan en realitat quasi tot és una mentida, es veuen implicats en un cas complicat.

La Barcelona de fa uns anys i la mentida dels germans fa que el libre sigui entretingut. el cas i el final no són res de l'altre món, però la lectura és amena i original.

[Sihaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido y bien escrito. Para pasar un rato agradable.

[Sara Platero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela negra ambientada en Barcelona donde dos hermanos, muy diferentes entre ellos, deberán investigar el encargo de una importante figura política: descubrir de dónde ha salido el cuadro de un pintor francés en el que sale retratada su mujer.

Con este inicio los dos hermanos se verán inmersos en una trama creada por los entresijos y secretos de la sociedad catalana y el clasismo rezumante de la misma.

El estilo de escritura de la autora es sencillo y ágil aportando mucho dinamismo a la lectura. El argumento de la historia es muy original y mantiene al lector atento a la misma.

Sin duda muy recomendable
+16 años

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 4 stars for being such a pleasant surprise.

I enjoy reading mysteries from other cultures (see also Delhi Noir, review coming soon…). This one is from Barcelona (woo-hoo!), and is Teresa Solana's debut novel. It won a prize for best crime novel published in (yay!) Catalan. Catalan?! You bet.

This book is terrific for at least two reasons: first, a fresh voice and a fresh narrator. His name is Eduard, and let's just copy out the first paragraph:

My brother Borja's name isn't Borja. It's Pep (or Josep). And his surname isn't Masdéu-Canals Sáez de Astorga. We're both Martínez on our father's side and Estivill on our Mother's.

We go on to find out that they are twins. Orphaned when they were young. And now, no one knows that they are even brothers, not even Eduard's wife. Pep has managed to pass himself off as being of a higher class than the prosaic Martínez clan, and started a business being, essentially, a fixer for high-class folks. He gets our narrator to work with him, and there our story begins. They undertake tasks the rich can't do themselves. They pawn things. They check up on employees. And occasionally deal with infidelity. But they don't plant bugs or keep thick files or even present invoices. They don't pass themselves off as professionals: "it's more like asking a friend to find out what he can in exchange for a generously-filled envelope."

So they are surprised when murder comes their way.

This much fits the mold of the amateur sleuth, the everyman who finds himself confronting a mystery. But these guys are a delightful, inexperienced pair, and make up eveything as they go along. I enjoyed the ride.

This relates directly to the other thing that made this so fun—and why I like mysteries from elsewhere: they're Catalan. I don't know if Solana is portraying some stereotype, or if, as I suspect, we get a window into the alien culture. For example, they never comment on it, but they don't work very hard by American standards. They do take siestas. They stay up late eating. They sleep in. When they get tired of working, they knock off and go eat something. And there are various things you hear, in the narrative, about life in Barcelona. Where the rich live. Where they shop. What family relationships are like in the middle class Martínez household. How they feel about the Castilians. And then it has some lyrical description. The author and narrator love their city. It feels like a book written to be enjoyed and laughed at by natives, in a sparkling translation.

If I had any reservation, it would be that Solana does not adhere to all of the details in the unspoken (but it must be written about somewhere) contract between mystery authors and their readers. There is a delicate dance in a mystery in which the author reveals just the right amount so that the reader, on finding out whodunit, will smack themselves in the forehead, saying, "I should have known!" Reveal too little and the denouement comes out of left field; reveal too much and the reader solves the mystery before the detective does. But who is to say that a Catalan mystery has to follow our up-tight estadunidense (or whatever it would be in Catalan) formulas? Not I.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any crime writer seeking to use Barcelona as a setting must contend with the extremely long shadow cast by the godfather of Spanish crime, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, whose 16-book "Pepe Carvalho" series, which is also set there. Fortunately, Solana manages to make the city sing in the service of her odd couple detecting duo. Eduard and Borja are the middle-aged co-directors of a slightly shady firm of "fixers" consisting of themselves, a fictional secretary represented by an artfully draped shawl and timely spritzes of perfume, and a small entry room with a fancy faux door to their perpetually "under construction" main office.

Their off-the-books quasi detective agency runs on an artfully cultivated reputation for total discretion, which allows them to float into the upper reaches of society while not having to do anything actually illegal. In this debut, the two are asked by a prominent politician to investigate how his wife came to pose for a painting he knew nothing about (the subtext being a question about her marital fidelity). For a while, this allows Eduard and Borja to drive around Barcelona in a borrowed Smart car, trailing her to a succession of upscale shops, fancy cafes, and hairdressers. However, when she turns up poisoned, they suddenly realize that they've landed themselves in something rather more serious than they expected (or are really prepared to deal with).

Meanwhile, there's a nice domestic backdrop to all this, as we meet Eduard's wife and children, and Borja attempts to escape the romantic attentions of Eduard's sister-in-law. Eduard is the prototypical Watson, narrating the story in the wake of his more flamboyant and risk-taking partner, living a stable family life while Eduard lives in an apartment provided by his married girlfriend. The two are different enough to be good foils to each other, yet not so much so that their friendship strains the reader's credulity -- and oh yes, did I mention, they're secretly twins!

There's a very nice comic streak throughout the tale, and the elements (blackmail, false names, switcheroos, etc.) are quite old-fashioned in many ways. And the story unfolds quite nicely, allowing the author to tweak the noses of Barcelona's upper crust and political elite, while delivering a good sense of the city. The only letdown is in the final unmasking of the murderer, which strikes the only false note in the book and is somewhat disappointing, given the quality of the rest of the book. The book appears to be the launch of a series, as the secret brothers are a nice platform for further adventures, and there remains a great deal of murkiness to their shared history that seems destined to be revealed.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teresa Solana is a Spanish mystery novelist whose book was translated from the original Catalan. A Not So Perfect Crime takes place in Barcelona and, like Alicia Giménez Bartlett's novel, look at the upper class, though in this case it is also the political class. The background is also a little more outlandish, as there are twin (but not identical) brothers but one is something of a lovable shyster who brings his brother into an occasionally lucrative detective practice, even while they claim to the world that they are just close friends rather than brothers. It borders on too cute but it does work.

The tone is lighthearted but the more serious issue of social class is pervasive. There is north of Diagonal and south, like the proverbial train tracks. Class and status is central to the reasons why so many people hate the murdered woman, who was the wife of a prominent (and wealthy) Catalan politician. Class is also central to the twist of plot at the end.

It was a good read, perhaps not quite as good as Giménez Bartlett, and particularly good if you want the Barcelona backdrop.

From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2018/...

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solana who trained as a classicist paints the atmosphere of Barcelona using two very different twin detectives, like two sides of the same character. I did not really follow the mystery but reading about food, drink, and activities of the highly placed was fun.

[Lucy Birch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why was this published?

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pe fratele meu Borja nu-l cheamă Borja. Îl cheamă Pep (sau Josep). Şi nici numele lui de familie nu este Masdéu-Canals Sáez de Astorga. Pe amândoi ne cheamă Martínez după tată şi Estivill după mamă.
Spre deosebire de Borja, adică de Pep, eu păstrez prenumele cu care m-au botezat părinţii mei şi numele lor de familie: pur şi simplu Eduard (chiar Eduardo în DNI) Martínez Estivill. Fratele meu, în schimb, se numeşte (sau mai curând îşi zice) Borja Masdéu-Canals Sáez de Astorga, şi asta în ciuda faptului că în cartea lui de identitate, expirată cu mulţi ani în urmă, apare ca José Martínez Estivill, născut la Barcelona, fiul Rosei şi al lui Francisco. Bineînţeles că nimeni nu ştie că eu şi Pep (adică Borja) suntem fraţi. Mai precis, fraţi gemeni. De ştiut, nu o ştie nici măcar soţia mea.
Părinţii noştri s-au născut la Barcelona, dar pe linie paternă bunicii şi străbunicii proveneau din Soria. În cazul familiei imaginare a lui Borja-Pep, după cum chiar el povesteşte, tatăl lui era din Lérida, fratele mai mic al unei familii cu o importantă avere în pământuri cultivabile şi vaci de lapte în ţinutul Alt Urgell, iar mama lui, o bogată moştenitoare originară din Santander, oraş în care falşii părinţi ai lui Borja au hotărât să se instaleze atunci când, chipurile, s-au căsătorit şi unde el zice că s-a născut.
Această abilă disperare genealogică îi este de folos fratelui meu Pep ca să justifice faptul că, în ciuda acestor impresionante nume de familie de viţă veche şi a unui însemnat patrimoniu familial pe care cică l-ar fi moştenit (deoarece se prezintă ca fiind singur la părinţi, ca să nu complice şi mai mult lucrurile), familia Masdéu-Canals Sáez de Astorga nu este cunoscută în Barcelona. Fratele meu are grijă să explice, în legătură cu situaţia sa financiară precară, că familia lui este una dintre acele vechi familii, în mod inevitabil scăpătată, care îşi afundă rădăcinile arborelui genealogic în obscure nume de familie aristocratice cu o confuză ascendenţă medievală.

[Andreea · Rating 4 out of 5]

O crima imperfecta - Teresa Solana
Eduard și Borja sunt două personaje pe care cu siguranță le veți îndrăgi.
Aceștia sunt doi detectivi care se ocupă de diverse cazuri, însă totul se schimbă atunci când ajung să investigheze o crimă.
Povestea este mult mai bună decât mă așteptam – o lectură ușoară și plăcută.
„Un mister amuzant” descrie cel mai bine această carte.
Finalul mi-a plăcut enorm!

Naratorul, un pretins detectiv particular are, împreună cu fratele său geamăn, o agenție ilegală.
Într-o zi, cei doi frați sunt angajați de Lluís Font, un deputat din Barcelona, pentru ai spiona soția, întrucat acesta descoperise într-o expoziție pariziană un portret al Lídiei Font și dorea să afle dacă ea îl înșela cu pictorul. Dar soția deputatului este asasinată în ziua de Crăciun, cu niște bomboane primite într-un misterios cadou.
"Detectivii" descoperă apoi că deputatul are o amantă: sora Lídiei și, prin urmare, ar fi putut să-și ucidă chiar el soția. Să fie oare deputatul adevăratul asasin?
Cei doi frați vor reuși să descifreze acest mister, ajungând la concluzia că nicio crimă nu este "perfectă
Pagini: 480

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I travel to a city, I like to read a novel set in the city to get a feel for the local lifestyle. I checked this book out of the library before our trip to Barcelona, which was cancelled because of the horrid coronavirus. The novel is a nice window into the lives of people in Barcelona. They really take siestas! It mentions a lot of interesting parks and bars and cafes that I hope to be able to explore someday when we can all travel again. The mystery itself was OK, but what I really enjoyed were the descriptions of people and places.

[Leah Rachel von Essen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Not So Perfect Crime by Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush, is a campy mystery about two sorta private investigators who are accidentally thrown in way over their heads. Two twin brothers (one of whom is deeply undercover as a cultural elite) are in the business of quietly solving or digging into rich people's problems. It's a story of misunderstandings and the absurdities of the elite, of two men more or less bumbling their way through a murder investigation. It was fun and easy reading, with an ending that I enjoyed much more than I would have anticipated.

[Clotilda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cuesta creer que esto lo haya escrito una mujer en el siglo XXI. La historia es entretenida, no está mal. Le daría 3 estrellas si no fuera por el tufillo rancio que desprende la novela, en la que lo único para lo que aparecen personajes femeninos es para poder hacer una minuciosa descripción de su aspecto físico y ser el interés amoroso de algún señor. También la autora parece tener especial inquina por el feminismo, ese movimiento gracias al cual puede firmar sus novelas con su nombre, entre otras cosillas.
Hay más libros de la saga pero NO THANKS. Con uno es suficiente.

[Iulia Gheorghe · Rating 3 out of 5]

"După părerea ei,era foarte simplu: 𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑎 𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎̃𝑟𝑡̗𝑒𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑡̗𝑖 𝑠𝑖 𝑠𝑎̃𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑖. Bogații erau cei care dețineau destui bani ca să-și îndeplinească orice capriciu, fie că era vorba de un Van Gogh, o casă pe Riviera franceză sau un loc în Parlament. Restul erau săraci. Mariona nu făcea niciun fel de distincție între cei care trăiesc într-o cutie de carton la metrou și cei care o fac într-un apartament de șase sute de metri pătrați la sud de Avenida Diagonal."

[Alejandro Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está bé. Et fa passar una estona divertida i entretenguda. No és el millor llibre del món però es com mirar una sèrie dolenta però Graciosa. Està bé.

Això si, crec que hi ha comentaris masclistes i racistes dins el llibre. Esper que sigui per mostrar característiques dels personatges i no el pensament de la autora.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comic mystery set in Barcelona featuring brothers (don't tell anyone) who are detectives (don't tell anyone). Great choice to read before a trip to Barcelona. Fun mystery and great characters.

Props to translator Peter Bush: the translation from Catalan to English was excellent.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very odd book. The translation was redolent of Catalan grammatical structure. The storytelling involved a lot of extraneous detail that didn’t necessarily contribute to the plot or even the atmosphere. And the ending was certainly not that of a typical murder mystery.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven but entertaining detective novel with a good eye for post-Franco class distinctions in Spain. The contemporary Barcelona setting is a lot of fun. I'd hunt down more of these.

[Jmolentin]

Mildly entertaining. I was suppose to be in Barcelona this May but the pandemic got there before me. So I picked this up as a substitute.

[Charlotte mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting story, in an interesting location, with good local depictions of not only the physical location, but also some of the social tensions.

[Dsdmona · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 estrellas

[Ladybug · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

[rebecaa.books · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐

[Jim Willse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abbott and Costello sort of solve crimes in the various social strata of Barcelona. The writing/translation is clumsy and the plot beyond improbable, but it’s fun to revisit the city. Not awful.

[Mis lecturas Kindle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Força divertit. De vegades una mica lent.

[Jordi Colom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novela entretinguda situada a Sarrià, és entretinguda i fàcil de llegir