Ibon Martin rolls into bookstores these days with his latest novel, Bajamar. After bidding farewell to Leire and Ane, he now introduces us to Jon, a family doctor who returns to Lekeitio, his summer retreat with his parents, to make it his permanent residence and work at his health center.
The first thing that greets us in the novel is that characteristic northern fog, which we do not deny calling mist because it sits over the water, and which helps the cold greet us in the mornings for a large part of the year. And yes, I use the plural because if you’re from the north you know exactly what I’m referring to. But it’s not just the fog:
also the sounds, the landscapes and their beloved traineras push you toward the area, because if there is one character more in the author’s novels, it is the setting.
Recognizable, tangible, and, in many moments, capable of drawing us into the streets of places that leave no doubt about his first-hand knowledge.
Bajamar is the moment in the tidal cycle when the sea level reaches its lowest height. The instant when the greatest area of land lies exposed and where wrecks, sandbanks and, according to his new novel, secrets and shadows from the past appear. The story begins with the discovery of the body of Lea Alzaga, a young influencer or promoter of the local natural spaces, whom the protagonist Jon Aguirre follows on social networks in the hope of summoning the courage to invite her to coffee. And yet, what he finds is her corpse. Convinced that he is facing a murder—as he himself says, his profession makes him know how to tell when a wound is the result of an accident or an assault—he does not hesitate to become involved in the investigation until he uncovers her killer. A place where everyone knows each other and a great majority have something to hide, a town that tourism and real estate speculation threaten to destroy its essence, and a starting shot that focuses on those who share places that many of us would wish to keep secret, so that we can continue feeling they are ours; these are the elements of a novel capable of suffocating the reader little by little until the resolution of the case.
Ibon stays true to his habit and blends the action of the novel with the setting, in the pure Nordic-noir detective style, adding in this case the presence of Sua as a kind of balm for everyone. In this novel, animals heal the soul.
The author, already established as one of the most well-known names in the genre in the Basque Country, uses first-person narration to convey to the reader the feelings of Jon, marked by the death of his girlfriend Mónica, and his almost cathartic interest in discovering the truth behind this new death that crosses his path. He does not abandon topics such as local traditions, changes that are nothing more than face-lifts that do not take into account the broader reach they provoke or the real problem that exists with the poachers, and he constructs a story that moves away from the classic “thrilling” that genre novels are often tagged with to force the reader to suspect everyone and maintain the intrigue until the last pages.
And speaking of not abandoning: the novel holds a small surprise for the most nostalgic readers.
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Author: Ibon Martín. Title: Bajamar. Publisher: Plaza & Janés. For sale at: Todos tus libros.