Crime Novel or Generic Hybrid? The Intimate Side of Evil in Todo é silencio by Manuel Rivas

Manuel Rivas’ contribution to crime fiction analyzes drug trafficking and the social and political corruption associated with it from a peculiarly intimate perspective. The justification for the fluctuation in the novel between the bildungsroman and the crime novel is the use of adolescents as main characters, thereby bringing to the fore the way in which organized crime breaks apart both society and individuals, as everyone, including the criminals, is destroyed by their engagement with a corrupt power. The narrative focus reinforces social and moral criticism, and relegates the restoration of order and justice to the plane of utopia.