An all-too-familiar affair | The Good Sons | Our Dead
You don’t investigate family
In the first book of the saga, An all-too familiar affair, the Hernández family runs a detective agency in the Sant Andreu neighborhood of Barcelona. It is here that Mateo, his wife, and their three children earn their living by guarding the many secrets of their neighbors and their own. The only external collaborator is Ayala, who handles the dirtiest jobs.
Nora, the eldest daughter, had been working in the agency until a few months ago, but now no one knows where she is. Although everything points to her having voluntarily run away, the family feels otherwise. Her absence has left the house disorganized and has exacerbated her mother Lola’s madness. One day, Carlos Guzmán, a very powerful builder known and feared in the neighborhood in equal measure, appears in the office. Guzmán hires Mateo to find his son, who has been missing for days, and who knows if due to the father’s shady dealings. Past grievances between Guzmán and Mateo force the latter to accept the case while Nora’s disappearance corrodes family life.
In The Good Sons, Nora resumes her role in the company as if nothing had happened, with a case that keeps her away from the turmoil of living in her house again. The agency continues to handle routine cases until one day, a couple contacts them to clarify the suicide of their fourteen-year-old daughter. This investigation, which at first is just another case, ends up changing the Hernández family’s life forever.
Mateo assigns the case to Marc, who, thanks to Lola’s brilliant intuitions, discovers that the girl led a double life. The girl’s parents, ashamed, withdraw the assignment, but the Hernández family does not want to stop. No one suspects the price they will pay for going too far in a murky pedophilia case.
In Our Dead, the Hernández family has closed their detective agency and each has taken their professional path. Mateo, the family father, now works for another agency, Nora teaches at an academy, and Amalia and Ayala have created their own agency. They have experienced many events and still have some unfinished business.
Although he works for the WHO agency, Mateo cannot help but investigate a case on his own: a neighbor contacts him because her son Armand has disappeared and she does not want to go to the police. A promising young man, intelligent, a promise in the business world. What could be hiding for his parents not to want to make his disappearance official?
By accepting this case, Mateo drags his daughter Amalia and the former assistant Ayala with him. Despite still being weighed down by the trauma of previous cases, they decide to investigate this case in the shadows in the Saint Andreu neighborhood, proving that, as a family, they can face any adversity.
RELEVANT INFORMATION: What the press has said about the saga and Rosa Ribas:
“Rosa Ribas is, for many, the best crime novelist in Spain.” Pedro M. Espinosa, Diario de Cádiz
“A lineage that seems to grow with every page… A delight for the most demanding readers.” Marta Marne, El Periódico
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
