Item - Cuando trasladéis mi féretro

Jaume Fuster was a Catalan writer who, despite his obvious liking for detective stories (a la Dashiel Hammet), showed to be very open-minded by tasting different styles such as science-fiction, epic fantasy or historical... And one of his experiments was this gamebook, Quan traslladeu el meu fèretre. As far as I know he wrote all his novels in Catalan (even in the darkest times of Spanish dictatorship), and this book is no exception: the original version is in Catalan. But the one I've got is the Spanish version, about which he didn't care at all. It's a pity. Guillermo Cárceles translates slang lexicon and phrases into a very standard Spanish, so some of the original flavour is lost in translation.

Although I enjoyed the writing, I would say that the gaming experience hasn't satisfied me. As in the other books of this series, you don't choose what the main characters do, but you choose the order to read the story. That is, the main events in the story will happen, it's a matter of good choice to be there as a watcher or not. It leads to some disappointing endings, for example the one where (in less than ten choices) a high class civil servant explains to you the whole plot. Or when the two characters are investigating in different countries and they explain to each other what they solved... so I replayed the book with the other character to watch how he got those solutions. Also, there are a few important events that appear repeated in different shapes, as a conversation with a Spanish civil servant, which you can meet in Paris or in Barcelona... and they say the same words one by one!

Regarding the story, it's a pity that the typical private investigator a la Mike Hammer gets involved in a international plot of international illegal weapon traffic and diamonds which forces him to travel to various countries. I'm afraid it doesn't fit him, or maybe I have a limited imagination. If you are able to ignore those inconveniences, you'll get a fine plot with plenty of detailed characters (there are no good nor evil ones) and precious descriptions of the non-touristical Barcelona and other places, and there is an interesting sexual tension among the two main characters.

More reviews by nicolau