Latin American autochthonous mystery fiction happens to be a rarity, although Americans readers have avidly devoured plenty of translations of foreign whodunits or detective stories. Thus, “Who Killed Palomino Molero?” by Mario Vargas Llosa is an archetypal example of a non-English detective novel, written after the Latin American Literary Boom of the 1960s. However, Llosa happens to have quite a neat and skillful hand at detective fiction, has proven from the previous novels that he has written, such as “'The Perpetual Orgy.” On the surface, it seems that Llosa fulfills the requirements of the detective fiction genre, his novel moving at a slow pace, heightening the tension, and apparently solving a crime in 150 pages. However, after reading Peter Hühn’s article “The Detective as Reader,” only a thorough analysis of Llosa’s text can reveal whether it meets the criteria of a detective story as described by Hühn.
Llosa’s novel is set in northern Peru, where the brutal murder of the young military recruit, Palomino Molero, is being investigated by the Guard Lieutenant Silva and his assistant Lituma (the investigation largely reported from his perspective). Thus, as “classical detective fiction,” Llosa’s novel employs “an individualized narrator” (Huhn) who in this case is indeed the “detective's [] assistant” (Hühn). The evidence tends to suggest that Colonel Mindreau, the commander at the military airbase where Palomino’s body was found, ordered the murder after finding out about Palomino’s affair with his daughter, Alicia. Later, a written confession is found, along with the bodies of the Colonel and Alicia, the father having committed suicide after shooting his daughter. It seems that the case is solved, but is it? At least that is what it appears to be, since these are the “clues,” “the traces left by the criminal” (Hühn).
On the surface, Llosa’s novel links the ideas of “detective” and the restoration of order. Unlike his earlier novels, Llosa represents the investigation and it progresses in a relatively orderly manner. As the novel nears its end, it seems that the truth has been revealed and Colonel Mindreau has met his deserved fate. However, the fact that the conclusions to which Lituma and (Silva) tend to reach are constantly wrong is concealed by the Popperian investigative process (Kristal 153). This makes readers doubtful about how valid the final conclusion of the policemen actually is. This makes the novel seem like a parody of detective narrative. Moreover, Llosa constantly sets the investigation against an atmosphere of utter remoteness or rurality: an area populated by crabs, goats, horses and insects, with an oppressive and sweaty climate, nothing but dusty roads and poor facilities.
The hierarchy that permeates the Peruvian society as portrayed by Llosa in the novel also contributes to failure of the detective and his assistant in solving the case. Colonel Mindreau, who is a man of greater influence, succeeds in his “attempts to prevent the detective from deciphering the true meaning of his text,” and this serious hampering of the investigation serves as the “main difficulty of the reading process” in Llosa’s novel. Although “gaining knowledge of the story” (Hühn) is crucial to the “crime-and-detection plot” (Hühn), it is never certain whether the detectives (or readers) even achieve this “knowledge,” or “see” the truth. The outcome is not as sharply defined as it may seem. There is no witness to the murder identified, and even at appears to be a crucial moment of revelation in the novel, merely uncertain information is offered by Doña Lupe.
One of the keys to mystery in Llosa’s novel is the fact that Alicia accuses her father of incestuous raping her, which also seems to be problematic. Lituma is doubtful about her accusation and struggles to decide whether she is mad (140). At the same time, Colonel Mindreau’s “confession” seems to suggest that he was protecting his daughter. He denies ever having raped his own daughter and explains that she suffers from “delusions” and has mental problems. Since he had already written his confession note and was about to commit suicide, so he probably had no reason to lie, and so this may be convincing. However, this still does not explain the mystery of why he killed his daughter, and thus, the mysterious key witness is removed for good. The townsfolk are doubtful about the investigative process and postulate a variety of conspiracy theories involving various “bigwigs.”
So, Colonel Mindreau, who is apparently the criminal, indirectly gives the story the “additional twist,” and since neither the townsfolk nor the detectives themselves are uncertain about the outcome of the investigation, this causes readers “to develop doubts about the actual efficacy of the crime scheme” (Hühn). Llosa not only creates a world but a narrative, a text of radical epistemological doubt, and authority, insight and knowledge almost seem impossible within the text and within the world it portrays. Thus, Silva’s comments once the major breakthrough has been made not only hold true about the investigation but also about the narrative of Llosa’s novel as well. Indeed, Llosa does not make things easy for the reader. To readers, some truths within the novel may seem the most truthful,, yet taking a really close look at them and thinking about them from all sides reveals that they are merely half-truths or not truthful at all.
Under such circumstances, what is a reader supposed to do but lose “faith in the possibility of finding an objective truth and of establishing a simple order” (Hühn). If that is the case, then Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Who Killed Palomino Molero?” fits the criteria of a hard-boiled detective novel as described by Peter Hühn. Indeed, while writing this analysis it seemed that Llosa was parodying the detective genre in his novel, and readers may feel the same on numerous occasions while reading the novel. However, perhaps that is what Llosa had intended “to presuppose a reader who from the start is less optimistic” by presenting a detective duo that is not particular dynamic, who constantly jump to incorrect conclusions. As for the question of the novel’s title, what distinguishes Llosa’s novel from typical detective novels is that like the townsfolk, it forces readers not to believe the outcome of the investigation.
Works Cited
Hühn, Peter. "The Detective as Reader: Narrativity and Reading Concepts in Detective Fiction." MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 33.3 (1987 ): 451-466. Print.
Kristal, Efraín. Temptation of the Word: The Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 1998. Print.
Llosa, Mario Vargas, and Alfred MacAdam (Translator). Who Killed Palomino Molero?: A Novel. New York: Noonday Press, 1998. Print.
