The Dagger | The Wound | The Betrayal
An infamous 21st century hero.
They call him Remil for having been a “real son of a bitch” (“hijo de remil putas”) soldier in the Malvinas war. He was one of the good ones, one of the brave ones. Remil was shot in the stomach and became a hero or, as he says, “an infamous hero”. An intelligence agent who does dirty business: he buys and blackmails judges, politicians, and journalists. Club bouncers look twice before letting him enter. Remil may even be worse than the bad guys.
Now he works for La Casita, one of the most confidential departments of the Argentine secret services, a basement so secret that it doesn’t even exist, a place where all is fair game in order to get information. Although he spends most of his time on minor issues, his boss, Cálgaris, asks him to protect Nuria Menéndez Lugo, a Spanish lawyer who is in Buenos Aires looking for wine companies to negotiate the export of the former to Spain. But she soon reveals herself to be a front for more ambitious business. In reality, Nuria is the one who manages the exportation of cocaine to Spain and the logistics of local transport, provided by other former Malvinas veterans.
Remil becomes obsessed with Nuria. Little does he know that his infatuation will end in Spain with his beloved in prison and the drug lord captured by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). A story about the turbulent love of two tough characters in which passion drives the protagonist to get involved and expose himself to the extreme.
Fourteen months later, Remil receives a call. Mariela Lioni, a young nun adored by the neighbors and hated by the drug traffickers, has disappeared. She left to help the underprivileged in Villa Puntal, a slum in the Argentine capital. Since then, she has given no sign of life. He must search high and low for her, by order of Father Pablo, one of the priests closest to Pope Francis. To do so, he will have to infiltrate one of the gangs that rule Villa Puntal: the Pajuelo and the Rojitos. After an arduous investigation that takes him from Patagonia to the Vatican, Remil discovers that the nun’s disappearance has something to do with the Catholic Church and the Pajuelos, and indirectly with the family of the governor himself. Finally, Remil discovers that Mariela has a new identity.
A former acquaintance of Pope Francis is about to unleash an irreparable tragedy. Father Pablo fears that this affair will stain His Holiness, so he enlists the help of Calgaris and Remil to defuse the actions of Garmendia, a former guerrilla who commands a handful of men from the armed conflicts that began in the 1970s.
At the same time, we discover the internal struggles of the secret services, how they are dedicated not only to obtaining relevant information, but also to carry out disinformation and destruction of the most powerful institutions. To do so, they will be aided by blackmailed psychoanalysts who access the patients’ medical records or prostitutes who will inform them of their clients’ most secret habits.
RELEVANT DATA: Jorge Fernández Díaz is one of the most influential voices in Argentine journalism and literature. His works are highly acclaimed by critics and the media. He is the winner of multiple awards, such as two Konex Platino Awards, the Martin Fierro Award, the Silver Laurel Personality of the Year Award, the Argentores Script Award, the Bicentennial Medal as an award for his journalistic and literary work and the Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, in recognition of his contributions to culture.
The best-selling trilogy starring the infamous and lethal Argentinean intelligence agent Remil, comprising The Dagger (El puñal), The Wound (La herida) and The Betrayal (La traición), has sold more than 300,000 copies, making it the most successful thriller saga in Argentina. According to its publisher, “Remil is the most widely read character in the country within the police genre”, consolidating the author as an icon within the genre. The Dagger (El puñal) was a finalist for the Grand Prix of Crime Literature of France and for the Festival Violeta Negra of Toulouse.
What the critics have said:
“The Betrayal (La traición) is not only a magnificent adventure of Remil, but a chilling x-ray of his country. Not even the Vatican escapes unscathed. Nor do we.” Arturo Pérez-Reverte
“Jorge Fernández Díaz’s books constitute one of the few current literary projects that attack a weak point in Argentine narrative: the ability to account for the present.” Martín Caparrós
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: In development as a TV Series.
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Czech.
