[Trending News] Lorenzo Silva: «Spain is not being generous with the Civil Guard»

07/03/2025

Updated at 09: 16h.

The writer moves with ease in the heart of the Benemérita barracks in Illescas, north of Toledo. Go if you know it well, and not because you have been detained. «This is one of the main stages of the novel. The rural positions are the eyes and ears of the Civil Guard, the spine of the body. From here everything is managed ». Lorenzo Silvia – Remore the winner of the Nadal and Planeta awards? – has chosen a picturesque enclave to present to the media the new installment of his most recognized saga: the Rubén Bevilacqua and Virginia Chamorroour Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson with Tricorn.

Llovizna falls, the fresco hinders and heaven receives us overcast. The day, in short, is going to match the fourteenth book of the series edited by destiny. 'The opposite forces' is titled, and comes Black than ever. To start, because the two members of the UCO –The Central Operational Unit of the Benemérita Judicial Police Service – will face two parallel investigations; One of them, the homicide of an old woman perpetrated in this Toledo town. But also because the crimes follow each other in that bitter blur that many have tried to hide under the carpet: the coronavirus that relegated us for months within the homes and the prison of our minds.

But reduce the new Bevilacqua adventure – Vila for friends – and Chamorro is to fall very short. In addition to a crime novel and a pandemic reminder, 'the opposite forces' explores other fields still without plowing and yearning to become a small recognition towards agents such as those that accompany us today by the guts of the Illescas position. «Spain, which is very generous, is not being with the Civil Guard. Today, it is not yet considered a risk profession, ”admits a silva dressed in black. And, today to the jacket is going to match the style of the novel.

Tribute to the Benemérita

Two and a half million readers contemplate the author. And one of them is Matías Martínez, head of the Illescas company and also the Judicial Police and Information of Toledo. Those who investigate homicides, go. Uniformed and with their corresponding gallons to the chest, the commander declares Silva reader while guiding us to a room located between vans and patrol cars. “It is very well informed and instructed on the structure of the body,” he says. He says he is satisfied with the most technical aspect of the work; The research process. And then corroborates it even from trying to throw him out of his tongue: «Of course there are always things that can be pointed out, but we are very happy. His novels are very real ».

More real could not be the new installment, because the author drinks a precedent that happened in the same Illescas during the pandemic. “It was a homicide that, by the way, is already resolved,” Martínez reveals. And it is that the maxim that repeats us again and again is that our civil guard has to envy as many European bodies. «Here, in just 24 hours, they resolved a homicide that was on all televisions. And that is not something that is achieved in the rest of the world, ”he explains proudly in the presentation room. A living room that, by the way, was at the time shooting gallery. They were notified, picturesque …

My trips with dad

The last adventure of Vila and Chamorro is not the only work that Silva presents this March. Soon, Father's Day will also be available 'My Travel with Dad', a children's book in which the author tributes great classics of adventure literature such as 'The Island of the Treasury', 'El Quijote', 'Journey to the center of the earth', 'Alice in the country of wonders' or 'Peter Pan'. A curious turn to its traditional black novel saga in which it seeks that parents and children enjoy a narrative with a simple vocabulary.

Silva has turned Vila and Chamorro into the greatest exponents of those anonymous civil guards who struggle to solve crimes in the back of society. It has been doing it for a long time, in fact. Because yes, 'the opposite forces' is published thirty years after leaving black on white the first work starring this binomial. “I sent her to a dozen publishers and, in principle, nobody wanted it,” he jokes. We asked why, and it is clear: in the 1990s, the black novel was a niche theme. Today everything has changed; At least, as far as readers are concerned. Other worlds seem unattainable. «I think that one of the things that disables me to be an academic is to dedicate myself to popular or gender literature. It is worse considered, ”he concludes.

Wounds to close

Already accommodated in the room, and in front of a nourished audience, Silva tells us about the secondary actor of 'the opposite forces': the Covid. A great weight monster to which, he insists, we have to defeat. «They have asked me why I approach her. Five years have passed and we have the duty to face that situation. Society does not want to do it because it is bitter, we have all lost people, ” It does not call to point out responsible with the accusing finger, but it does invite you to analyze past errors: «I have read the national security strategy of the year 2011. It already talked about pandemics, serious respiratory diseases and the need to have resources to deal with threats of this type. But, in the next nine years, masks were not even bought ».

That lack of resources has been reflected in his novel, as he has also made clear the painful gap between young people and the elderly. All this cocktail revolves around the figure of charity, an old woman killed at her home whose homicide could have overlooked in the middle of that torrent of deaths and police saturation. «The choice of crime was given by a friend of the Civil Guard. While I was confined in Illescas, he told me that, when they were with corpses in the houses, deaths were certified from the portal, ”he completes. The stage, admits, was idyllic for a seasoned murderer. “In the novel, the criminal is emboked in the veil of the pandemic,” he subscribes. As if not to take advantage of it.

However, he admits that his novel also calls optimism. «The impact of the pandemic was transformative in not necessarily negative senses. During confinement, reading with my daughter was the priority of the day, ”he says. Since then, he admits, they do the same daily. Because yes, even a sanitary nightmare with thousands of dead can hide a ray of light. What better way to close the most unique presentation to which the one who writes has come: one celebrated on the Vera del Tatami in which the agents train.