19 Cameras | 612 Euros | The Shadows of Nowhere
Sewer Games | Moleskin | Don’t Say Anything
Touré is an incredibly charismatic illegal immigrant from Burkina Faso who lives in San Francisco, a marginal neighbourhood in the center of Bilbao (north of Spain) — commonly known as “Little Africa”—. Despite being a colourful and diverse area which shelters him, for Touré, it is a daily struggle to survive among the high rates of criminality, prostitution and the bad life of the working classes.
Even though he earns a living (with difficulty) as supposed fortune teller and gigolo, he accepts a job offered by his friend Charo: to start a career as private detective, investigating the double life of Charo’s husband. Touré feels comfortable in this job, and he decides to dive deep into the world of investigations.
Touré is quite popular in San Francisco and, along with his friends, he will be in charge of several cases, like cool-bloodded murders, threats by local police officers, and mysterious disappearances of people from the neighbourhood.
However, Touré, as any other illegal immigrant, has more concerns: he wants to reunite with his daughter, who lives in France and later on will be kidnapped by the Nigerian mob. He will also have to deal with his wife, Mariam, who craves to get her family back, or to get the necessary papers to live legally in Europe. Touré will have to hide his affair with Cristina (or Sa Kené, as he calls her), a prostitute from San Francisco with whom he falls in love.
After a long time in Spain, Touré is deported to Mali (because… what difference does Mali or Burkina Faso make?), but he manages to get back to Spain. After having to confront the corruption of the local police, he moves to a village of the Navarran Pyrenees, looking for peace and quietness. However, in that isolated village, nobody is who they seem and, even there, Touré will have to work as detective.
Inspector Touré can always count with his friends to solve his cases: Txema, a deliverer and close friend; Osman, his flatmate; and Adama, who arrived in Spain with him in the same boat. Along with them, Touré will learn to overcome the many obstacles, and will try desperately to become a legal Spanish citizen.
RELEVANT DATA: The Inspector Touré Saga is composed of 6 instalments: 19 Cameras, 612 Euros, The Shadows of Nowhere, Sewer Games, Moleskin, and Don’t Say Anything. All of them have been highly acclaimed by the critics, who assure that Arretxe crudely portrays the current situation of the most marginalised social sectors. Arretxe combines the highly dramatical situations with touches of humour and optimism, thanks to the well-constructed characters and hilarious moments, without falling into a caricature or banalization.
What the critics have said:
“For those who think they have seen everything regarding detective stories, they are wrong: they are missing Touré.” Lectura en negro
“Touré is a necessary character, and we were not aware of it.” magazine Calibre 38
Jon Arretxe is a Basque writer of crime stories and travel books. His novels have been very well received by the audience and the critics, positioning him in the list of the best writers from the Basque Country.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: In development for TV Series format.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish, English, and Basque.
