A series of murders in Barcelona seduced by Sherlock Holmes

BarcelonaGlòria Sabaté (Barcelona, ​​​​1985) knows the Palau Güell like the back of her hand. She has spent so much time researching for the new novel that the team working on it already greets her with a smile as she explains that in Eusebi Güell's former office she has imagined a murder. Sabaté is a professor of medieval literature at the University of Barcelona and author of novels such as Lilith's daughter (Editions B, 2016) and The Veil of the Goddess (Column, Nèstor Luján Prize 2020). Until now his work had been limited to the historical novel, but with Death in the Palau (Rosa dels Vents) wanted to venture into new territory and has merged the genre with the crime novel. For this literary cocktail, the author was inspired by one of the most emblematic detectives, Sherlock Holmes, and more specifically by his impact in Catalonia at the beginning of the 20th century.

"In 1908, Barcelona was seduced by the Sherlock Holmes detective fever. With his works, for the first time, titles aimed at the whole population and not just limited to the more bourgeois sphere were translated into Catalan," explains Sabaté. Death in the Palau The sisters Isabel and Maria Lluïsa Güell were the hosts: passionate about the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, they decided to gather a select group of admirers of his literature at the Palau Güell, where they lived. "They lived next to the Teatro Principal, where plays about Sherlock Holmes were performed with overwhelming success," says the writer. In parallel, between 1908 and 1909 the collection Literatura Sensacional published the detective's stories weekly, accompanied by illustrations by Junceda and translations by Salvador Vilaregut and Joan Oller i Rabassa.

Dead in a beautiful and dark space

In this context, Sabaté imagines a cultural day with historical figures such as the editor, the assistant editor, the translator and the actor who played Sherlock Holmes. "I have mixed fiction and reality, but I have tried to ensure that the novel is very well documented, especially with regard to the people who did exist," says Sabaté. Among the catalogue of imaginary characters, Robina stands out, an English teacher with Scottish roots and a great reader of the work of Conan Doyle. The novel plays with the fact that they are all locked inside a beautiful but dark space (the rooms of the Palau Güell) when corpses begin to appear.

"I have mixed detective elements and the typical game of enigmas from the Sherlock Holmes stories with the symbolism that feeds the Palau," explains Sabaté. As she has done in previous books, the writer incorporates a magical perspective into the story that, in this case, connects with the motives of the murderer (or murderess). "The Palau has allowed me to recover a key symbolic element, linked to Modernism, which helps us understand the reasons of the guilty person," says Sabaté. The peculiarities of the building, designed by Antoni Gaudí, have been fundamental in creating an increasingly distressing atmosphere. "The Güells were the only bourgeois who did not go to Passeig de Gràcia, but decided to stay in the Raval. They wanted to protect themselves from the outside without being seen, so the building is totally isolated from the neighbourhood," explains the writer. "With the wrought iron columns at the entrance, it is a symbolic space."