You Are Not Sherlock Holmes (Tú no eres Sherlock Holmes)

A psychologist from the Spanish National Police joins an international team to hunt down a killer who has terrorized Prague, where, amid precariousness and loneliness, a community of Spaniards tries to build their lives.

In a frozen, melancholic Prague, the Spanish economic crisis has pushed hundreds of compatriots to emigrate, arriving with dreams and ending up trapped in precarious jobs, loneliness, and uprootedness. In this setting, Ubaldo Contador, a psychologist with the Spanish National Police, lands in the Czech capital to join investigator Janka Kopecká and an international team of profilers. Their mission: to hunt down the Prague Mutilator, a serial killer who copies — and perfects — the crimes of Spain’s infamous Coin Killer.

As the investigation progresses, the narrative shifts to the lives of other Spaniards who, in one way or another, will orbit around the case. Cirilo Castiñeiras, a Galician man bullied in his hometown, reinvents a restaurant until turning it into a success of traditional cuisine. José Manuel Calatrava, a frustrated pianist, throws himself into salsa music to survive. Andrea Mediavilla, an employee of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, deals with a toxic work environment at the embassy. Marto Cebrián, a former accountant, sleeps in a car and works disguised as a tiger. Gema Maceda, a former teacher, returns to Prague in search of a new direction. Virgilio Paúl, a renowned playwright, battles a depression that paralyzes him. All of them will become friends of Ubaldo and form a community of Spaniards marked by precariousness and unrest. And over them all, a grotesque backdrop: corrupt diplomats such as Ambassador Fernando de Érice-Arístegui, his deputy Braulio Giménez-Arnau, and attaché Dionisio Casado, more concerned with parties, orgies, and shady dealings than with their duties.

Ubaldo and Janka identify the killer: Ulises Culquicondor, a Salvadoran stage designer. However, the team of criminal profilers decides to keep him free in order to study him, leading to Janka’s resignation. Ubaldo is ordered to watch him, though the officer is more concerned with enjoying time with his Spanish friends like Cirilo, Andrea, or Gema, which gives Ulises a degree of freedom. Janka, meanwhile, fights the impulse to kill him with her own hands.

The lives of all the Spaniards in Prague, poor or rich, go on: crossed paths, improvised businesses, fleeting romances, and personal revenge. Amid all of it, Culquicondor attends Virgilio Paúl’s theatre rehearsals and proposes a collaboration. There he meets Vendula, one of the playwright’s former students, whom he courts meticulously. Under Ubaldo’s and a colleague’s surveillance, Ulises murders her in cold blood. Janka witnesses the scene, interprets that the officers are accomplices, and opens fire on the van, killing Dalibor, Ubaldo’s partner. Her mistake seals her fate: she ends up in prison, where she takes her own life.

Far from stopping, Culquicondor now targets Silvina Fiore, a child-prodigy soprano. He infiltrates her circle, waits for the right moment, and kills her in one of his most shocking crimes. The news reaches Madrid, where Dr. Maximiliano Luminaria — a prestigious neurosurgeon, gourmet restaurateur… and the real Coin Killer — watches his imitator’s work with disdain. Driven by pride and a desire to reaffirm his supremacy, he travels to Prague, follows Ulises, and after a tense face-to-face, kills him with a scalpel, leaving a coin on the corpse as an unmistakable signature.
The press elevates him to myth: the Spanish killer has executed the Czech one. Luminaria returns to Madrid where, after murdering the police inspectors who suspect him, he resumes his public life as an impeccable surgeon — with one great victory: he has eliminated his rival, fooled the police, and secured his place as a criminal legend.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: David Llorente is a novelist and playwright, winner of the Ramón J. Sender Narrative Prize, the Memorial Silverio Cañada Prize, the Valencia Negra Prize, and the Dashiell Hammett Prize. He currently lives in Prague, where he founded the Séptimo Miau Theatre Company, which has received several awards at European theatre festivals.

You Are Not Sherlock Holmes is a novel that combines the police thriller with social satire and the drama of an era — the 2008 economic crisis that marked a generation. The story, profoundly choral, intertwines the lives of many charismatic and complex characters struggling to find their path. In the foreground, the criminal investigation of the murderer, a high-voltage plot that contrasts with the almost everyday portrayal of expatriate life. The novel offers great potential as a thriller rich in human and dramatic elements. The story, moving between suspense and intersecting stories, allows for a structure with multiple points of view and subplots that enrich the main arc. The final duel between two charismatic killers provides a highly cinematic climax. It can be set in any European city.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Film

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish