Negro Absoluto is a brand new collection of detective fiction that sets out to rediscovers the many different paths forged over the last 150 years from the original enigma detective novels, to the American classics of the early 20th Century, stopping off al French moir cinema and then finally to the most recent re-interpretations of the genre. Following in the footsteps of classic Argentine collections such as “El septimo circulo”, “Evasion”, “Rastros”, “Cobalto” o “Serie Negra”, Negro Absoluto sets itself al the intersection of argentine literature and detective fiction, a place frequented by national greats, such as Borges and Walsh, in addition to established contemporary writers such as Ricardo Piglia, juan Martini and the collection`s editor, Juan Sasturain.

The collection is firmly rooted in the customs, places and people of Argentina; the crimes, the settings and the detectives are all Argentine.

Buenos Aires is at the very core of the collection and forms the backdrop for the different generations of sleuths that explore the city, attempting to unravel their mysteries.

What makes the streets of Barracas more alluring that San Francisco`s? Does a cadaver bleed differently in Parque Lezama than it would in Central Park? Who is the new Marlowe that works in an office on the Avenida de Mayo? Who is the beautiful yet vengeful sorceress battling Puerto Madero`s latent corruption? Who is the perplexing investigator that writes the crime column in the nation`s most popular daily in the midst of Argentina`s Decada Infame or Infamous Decade? What are the unnerving secrets luking in the fire-wrecked Buenos Aires in the weeks after the city`s bicentenary?

A 1930`s journalist, a former Nazi spy in the first wave of Peronism, a clairvoyant torning cards in her slum hovel as cracks appear in the glamour and economic success of the Menem era, a stocky man from present-day Abasto, diving his time between immigrants and immigrant cuisine, a man of broken dreams, whiling away his time in between Rosario, Pirialopis and his house in Palermo, three marginalized Tourettes sufferers trying to survive in 21st century Buenos Aires, overrun with rain and contradictions.

In Negro Absoluto , crime doesn`t pay. Neither does it earn. In fact, it doesn`t even travel: cadavers find their home in Buenos Aires, the bullet-ridden air is at once humid and porteño, and the tiring feet of the sleuthing characters avoid the ruts in the crumbling city pavement. Spilt blood must be negotiated, but not always. In Negro Absoluto the end is always worth the wait. Nothing is written in stone and there is always something worth writing.