"I Don't Need to Save People's Souls"

Maribel Barreiro, a late-blooming writer who began attending literary workshops and writing her first stories after retiring as a lawyer, makes her debut in the novel with a police thriller. Titled 'Checkmate to Lucifer', it delves into the murder of a Russian mobster beneath the Fallen Angel statue in El Retiro Park, a territory under the crossfire of drug trafficking and where chess enthusiasts gather. "For me, drugs are hell on Earth," she says. "I work with metaphors to convey that heaven is paradise until drugs arrive, which is the loss of will. In the novel, Inspector López, its protagonist, is the archangel who expels them from heaven, and the inspector's entire struggle is against drugs."

-Why does the inspector have a young apprentice accompany him?

-Because it adds a lot of dynamics. Although the younger generation may not realise it, there is a huge dichotomy at certain ages, like the habit of reading books instead of TikTok, or playing chess instead of engaging with new technologies. But they are also much more athletic. Those who don't run go to the gym after marathon workdays. The apprentice's naivety contrasts with the inspector's experiences, and their opinions and viewpoints are entirely different.

-There are elements reminiscent of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. What are your influences?

-I really like Domingo Villar (author of 'The Beach of the Drowned', among other novels), who does that interplay between the inspector and the assistant very well, and captures a lot of Galician philosophy. I love it; it's a shame he suffered a heart attack so young because he had so much promise. His Inspector Caldas probably inspired me, very introspective, and something of Commissioner Montalbano (a character by Andrea Camilleri) and Inspector Caldas, who is also a very introverted man. I also thought of Fuenteovejuna (a play by Lope de Vega), which I read in school.

-What is the seed of the book?

-Pure imagination, and when I have a skeleton, I look for real cases and invent stories about those cases, like the mafia operating in Levante, where they bought businesses. Or what happens in a society where no one is exempt from falling into the world of drugs. Reality is much more powerful and far surpasses imagination.

-You say that in Spain the Russian mafia has penetrated economically.

-Like the Italian capos, they have very clear rules about what can and cannot be done. When they arrived, it wasn't murders or deaths but money laundering in restaurants, banks that have been intervened. I was surprised they had their solidarity fund for the wife or widow or their children if they were killed or imprisoned.

-How was that prior documentation process?

-This novel is somewhat peculiar because it mixes many different worlds. One of the parts that cost me the most was about cryptocurrencies and non-fungible assets, for the plot of the hacker who deceives the mafia.

-And are your characters also real?

-They are inspired by someone around me or whom I've seen on the street. Not in one characteristic, but in a set of characteristics. And that's real. I build a character with those ways of being. A friend who doesn't go out, another who fills meetings with their joy... I'm a kind of thief of people's traits. I watch them to see how I can use them.

-Was El Retiro the best setting for the crime?

-I've lived very close and walked it a lot. As a child and then as a mother. It had to be there and also at the Fallen Angel statue, which is at an elevation above sea level with the devil's number. There were so many coincidences not to take advantage of them.

-Is there a final message?

-There are no morals, which are great for children's stories, but not in crime novels. I don't need to save people's souls. There are events that lead to a result and an analysis of the pebbles you leave behind.