2023-06-21 08:36:42
The use of vile garrote It is associated in many cases with the Inquisition, but the last execution through this procedure occurred on March 2, 1974, to Salvador Puig Antich. A method that, like all those in which an executor intervenes, depended on his skill and strength: an instantaneous death or a long and agonizing one. Pepe Isbert’s sentence in Berlanga’s film ‘El verdugo’ (1964) about the inhumanity of this system still resonates in the popular imagination: “if there is a penalty, someone has to apply it”.
But, what happens when a person, at their own risk, decides what is right and what is wrong and decides to apply justice? whatWhat is morally reprehensible? And above all,who should sentence him? At a political moment in which they are trying to wrest from us the criminal classifications that have taken us so long to designate, Toni Hill’s latest novel, ‘The Last Hangman’ reaches fundamental relevance.
After the discovery of three corpses with a very thoughtful staging, and each of them found in a different station, the police are clear that every three months they will have a new body to analyze. The note found next to the bodies (“someone has to do it”) makes it clear that they are dealing with a serial killer. Due to these peculiarities, they decide to have the interpretation of a criminologist, Lena Mayoral, who will help them read all the psychological traces that the murderer has left In the scene.
There are a number of elements that are already part of the idiosyncrasy of Toni Hill’s literature. The first of them is social denunciation as one of its fundamental features without the reader hardly noticing it. The choice of certain protagonists in her fiction is, basically, a clear political position; Thus, in this novel the number of homosexual characters can be comparable to that of heterosexuals and we also find homosexual families.
Second, the chorality of his works. We never have a single, clear protagonist: Hill always builds a universe of voices, characters, and relationships. And one of the keys to making this work as well as it does is the author’s talent for drawing his personalities. In ‘The Last Executioner’ this feature is decisive in a plot in which victims, suspects and investigators constantly compete for leadership. They are all equally relevant, and the alternation of their transcendence places them at the same level. Something really difficult to achieve.
Finally, the secrets as the engine of their intrigues; We are presented with a series of elements that only some of the protagonists know about, and that serve as a bargaining chip to generate pacts and enmities. In this novel everyone seems to have something to hide. And that the reader is always one step ahead and knows much more than the characters is essential so that the suspense does not wane.
we are before one of the best national ‘thrillers’ of recent years. The key lies in an intelligent plot, well-constructed characters and a firm desire to entertain as a reading engine. It promises to be one of the books that we will see on all deckchairs this summer.
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