Leaving and returning: Tracing the double disengagement in the work of Dolores Redondo

Crime fiction is an extremely popular genre, the basic template of which can adapt to a multitude of settings, plots and functions. Emerging from repressive dictatorships and oppressive right-wing regimes, many nations in the Spanish-speaking world have only recently, in the past 50 years, seen the development of a crime genre that serves as a critique of society past and present. This article analyses two contemporary Spanish crime novels by award-winning author Dolores Redondo. Adopting a multi-theoretical approach, the character of the detective appearing in two novels by the Basque crime fiction author will be the focus of the discussion. Aspects of slippage in space, time and agency considered from an autoethnographic perspective inform an examination of the narrative structure. It concludes by considering the impact that the motion of ‘leaving and returning’ has in the context of crime fiction.