Crisanta by Juan Ramon Biedma

About the book

Juan Ramón Biedma, an author who has won the main awards for crime fiction, was the winner of the XXI Unicaja Fernando Quiñones Novel Prize for The Sound of Your Hair. Crisanta, his latest novel, is an impeccable thriller as well as a ghost story set during the Civil War, born from the encounter between the marginal stories of the cinema of the 1930s, the enigmatic atmosphere of the esoteric British societies of the 19th century and the reconstruction of the Sevillian rearguard.

But we will also find in this setting a haunted mansion in the centre of Seville, two ill-fated love stories, a plan to free a republican politician, internal struggles within the winning side… rumors of ghosts in a ghostly city.

This novel is born from the encounter between the marginal stories of the cinema of the 1930s, the enigmatic air of the esoteric British societies of the 19th century and the reconstruction of the Sevillian rearguard in 1936.

Just as important as these correspondences are the characters who pass through them:

chrysanthemumShe smuggles religious objects that both sides steal from the churches. She is not yet forty years old, lives with only a pendulum for company and is willing to do anything to cross the border before the obscurantism of the rebels finishes burying the country.
Juan Serradora former Legion chaplain, does not even try to adapt to his new priestly position at the Hospital de la Santa Caridad. He does his best to continue on his path, without mixing religion with beliefs.
Alberto Chacon Carterdirector of the Seville Mediumistic Society, tries to continue his esoteric research in a city crushed by reprisals, but even in an environment like his, the notion of the impossible can be modified.
Goddadasensitive, secretary of the Mediumistic Society, is not willing to settle for her role as a war widow.
Manuel Diaz Butlerthe person most responsible for repression in Andalusia at the time, signs dozens of death sentences every day, has perfectly organized his life around terror, until his life begins to fall apart.

The sidewalks are empty, the banks of moisture that hide the street corners are the prelude to a rain that is going to fall at any moment; if someone sees them passing by from the windows, they quickly return to their hole trying not to attract attention.