Barcelona, 1980
Since 2004, he has worked at El Periódico de Catalunya, where he is part of the team responsible for special reports, supplements, and feature content. This trajectory has made him a versatile writer, capable of interviewing figures such as Eduardo Mendoza or narrating anything from a champagne tasting to the unexpected virtues of a cemetery, while covering topics in health, science, and urban culture.
A passionate reader of crime fiction since adolescence—an inheritance from the old Agatha Christie editions that were lying around at home—he made his fiction debut with We Don’t Close in August (Libros del Asteroide). In this first novel, he offers a luminous take on a genre usually dominated by darkness, drawing on the light and heat of the Barcelona summer to explore the city’s social tensions: rising housing costs, job insecurity, inequality, and the impact of mass tourism.
He also writes a series of short chronicles on everyday life in Barcelona, the result of a practice as simple as it is increasingly rare: wandering through the city unhurriedly, with eyes wide open.
“Eduard Palomares’s prose skillfully blends the new ways of investigation (social media, access to databases) with dusty old icons like notebooks hidden like holy grails, almanacs of poisons, or detectives who’ve seen better days.” Octavio Gómez, 20Minutos
“Palomares uses crime fiction as an excuse to dissect the social reality of today’s Barcelona.” Germán González
“Welcome is the gaze of this young man who hustles to get by, gets himself into trouble, and becomes a hero.” Lilian Neuman
Bibliography
Novel
Jordi Viassolo, an unemployed apprentice private detective, is waiting to finally be hired by an agency while surviving on occasional shifts as a waiter. After working at a luxurious cocktail event in Barcelona’s uptown district, he receives news that one of the guests, Mike Comabella—an aspiring mayor—has died in a suspicious accident. Shortly afterward, he gets a small assignment as a detective: a mysterious client asks him to investigate a neighborhood association in the Raval. In this Barcelona district, he will discover that real estate speculation, social inequality, and drug trafficking are far more blatant than he ever imagined.
After the success of We Don’t Close in August, Eduard Palomares returns with a gripping crime novel that combines intrigue, social portraiture, and irony. Through the adventures of his endearing rookie detective and his quirky circle of friends, the author adapts noir fiction to the twenty-first century, portraying the evolution of the city over the last forty years and proving that, no matter how much time passes, some things never change.
“It’s a fast, smile-inducing read, with dialogue that flows and leaves you wanting more, because they feel like gunshots—sharp and instantaneous.” Javier Lahoz, El Periódico de Aragón
“Eduard Palomares’s prose skillfully blends the new ways of investigation (social media, access to databases) with dusty old icons like notebooks hidden like holy grails, almanacs of poisons, or detectives who’ve seen better days.” Octavio Gómez, 20Minutos
"Igual que ayer consolidates Eduard Palomares’s gaze on the city and on the genre.” Quim Aranda, Ara
“A fresh shake-up of Barcelona-made noir.” David Morán, ABC
“What the hell: don’t miss a single thing in this novel. Nor in the first installment of the series, because you’re going to get hooked on Viassolo.” Javier Menéndez Llamazares, El Diario Montañés
“Palomares uses crime fiction as an excuse to dissect the social reality of today’s Barcelona.” Germán González, El Mundo
“Viassolo resembles Andreu Martín’s Flanagan more than Chandler’s Marlowe; he’s a detective very much of our times.” Rosa Martí, Esquire
“Welcome is the gaze of this young man who hustles to get by, gets himself into trouble, and becomes a hero.” Lilian Neuman, La Vanguardia
“With well-aimed doses of irony, he portrays contemporary society—something Palomares shares (…) with his admired Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Andrea Camilleri, and Petros Márkaris.” Anna Abella, El Periódico
Jordi Viassolo lands an internship—temporary and poorly paid—at a detective agency in Barcelona. His assignment is simple: keep the office open during the summer and stay out of trouble. Everything changes when a desperate client shows up claiming his wife has disappeared. It seems like an apparently straightforward investigation, perfect for the shy and inexperienced Viassolo to start getting his feet wet on the street. However, the case soon becomes complicated, and the apprentice detective must step out of the bubble he lived in as a student and begin putting into practice what, until now, he had only heard about.
Eduard Palomares takes the legacy of Barcelona noir and gives it a jolt, adapting it to the reality of the twenty-first century: precarious contracts, sky-high rents, mass tourism… The crime becomes an excuse to portray, in fresh and direct language, a Barcelona that evolves at breakneck speed—most of the time in spite of its residents. A novel that is noir, but also luminous.
“A very well-written novel that strengthens the laughter muscles.” Javier Lahoz, El Periódico de Aragón
“It’s an ingenious, fun, and fresh novel. (…) Jordi Viassolo is closer to Andreu Martín’s Flanagan than to Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe; he’s a detective very much of our times.” Rosa Martí, Esquire
“Entertaining, fresh, and very contemporary, it is well written and shows how crime fiction still has the ability to adapt to very modern settings.” Alberto Portolés, Aceprensa
“The novel’s close and lively language allows the author to use crime fiction as an excuse to dissect the social reality of today’s Barcelona, one of the genre’s great hallmarks among European writers.” Germán González, El Mundo
“With well-aimed doses of irony, he portrays contemporary society—something Palomares shares with Mediterranean noir and with his admired Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Andrea Camilleri, and Petros Márkaris—steering away from the typical mystery thriller.” Ana Abella, El Periódico
“Perhaps the freshest read of the season is We Don’t Close in August, Eduard Palomares’s highly original literary debut. (…) If only there were more crime novels like this one.” Jorge Freire, The Objective
“A first novel that reveals an author deeply versed in the genre as a reader and that starts from an original premise. (…) This story has a lot going for it: the investigation is well handled, the gentle tone works nicely, and it is deft in its tour through the world of detectives—and their miseries—through the disenchanted gaze of a young man living precariously.” Juan Carlos Galindo, El País
“The setting and clever plot make for a stimulating read. Welcome is the gaze of this young man who hustles to get by, gets himself into trouble, and becomes a hero.” Lilian Neuman, La Vanguardia
“A new voice in Barcelona noir. Palomares builds from the viewpoint of his young detective protagonist to portray contemporary Barcelona, marked by real estate pressure and mass tourism. Meanwhile, its residents, beyond the mirage of social media, remain trapped between work and family obligations.” Domingo Villar