La gota de sangre

Emilia Pardo Bazán was ahead of all the great ladies of noir and was a pioneer in our country in the cultivation of detective literature: before the publication of La gota de sangre in 1911, there was no reference in Spain of a genre that was already triumphant. in other latitudes. As Alicia Giménez Bartlett rightly points out in the prologue to this edition: "Without a doubt the main feature of this text is originality. We find ourselves in front of a Doña Emilia who subverts each and every one of the stereotypes of the genre. She manages to make it the occasional detective is at the same time a suspect in the eyes of law enforcement officers: policemen and judges.But not only that: he supplants the police, gives them orders, hides information from them and it is he who sets the pace and pauses in the investigations. investigations. Finally, without getting too disheveled, he takes the reins of the investigation, actively participates in it and, hidden from law enforcement officers, solves the crime. It is precisely in solving the crime that the author executes the most striking pirouette. Resolution of the case implies arrest of the culprit? I'm not going to spoil the outcome for you. I'll just tell you that, as prescribed, everything fits and, in its own way, justice shines".