Tomás Garrincha Saga

A retired gangster under police surveillance becomes a private detective to protect the quiet life he has built. In today’s Basque Country, Tomás Garrincha moves among mafias, corrupt businessmen, and relentless police officers, solving crimes where every case threatens to drag him back to the darkest side of his past.

The Tomás Garrincha saga is a contemporary noir set entirely in the Basque Country, where organized crime and the region’s murky business dealings intersect with the everyday lives of its people.

Its protagonist, Tomás Garrincha, is a gangster who achieved the impossible: retiring at the top—and staying alive. At forty-one, with a fortune made and the police fully aware of his retirement, he tries to live a discreet life in Olabeaga, overlooking the estuary. He is not seeking redemption, only silence and routine.

However, his past refuses to let go and pushes him to reinvent himself as a private detective, a profession he practices using unorthodox methods learned on the dark side of the law. Around him orbit key figures such as Ertzaintza inspectors Sara Cohen and Miguel Fabretti, in charge of the official investigations and a constant counterpoint to Garrincha: police officer and retired criminal forced to move on the same board.

In Trapped, the first novel, Garrincha is dragged back into the underworld when Lucía, the daughter of his former boss, crime lord Gorostiola, is kidnapped in Bilbao. What initially looks like a mob score-settling becomes more complex when it is discovered that the young woman was leading a dangerous double life. As Sara Cohen and Miguel Fabretti tighten the net from the Ertzaintza, Garrincha must rely on his old contacts to navigate local gangs, Genoese drug traffickers, and crossed betrayals. Solving the case is not only a matter of loyalty—it is the only way to protect the peaceful life he has fought so hard to build.

In The Price of Silence, Garrincha must continue protecting Lucía Gorostiola after her father’s death. Lucía inherits the family fortune, and with it the temptation to return to illegal business, just as her new life alongside a football star seems to promise a clean future. Everything collapses when a powerful Russian consortium blackmails her: either she ends the relationship, or the criminal secrets of both will be exposed. Trapped between the police, international mafia, and elite football interests, Garrincha and Lucía fight to survive in a game where silence can be far too costly.

In Suspects, the apparent calm is shattered when Lucía is about to marry footballer Eduardo Basterra. The celebration is marred by a brutal murder: Ignacio Echevarría, businessman and the groom’s uncle, is found riddled with bullets. What appears to be a score-settling over a multimillion-euro debt escalates when someone signing as El Comendador claims responsibility and announces further killings. To protect their name and empire, the family hires Garrincha. The investigation uncovers an old betrayal in a Nigerian oil operation and the return of a forgotten partner bent on revenge. Secrets, blackmail, and a deadly countdown follow.

In The Gangster of Olabeaga, Garrincha is officially recruited by French intelligence services to investigate the murder of a kidnapped young woman, daughter of a powerful French industrialist involved in shady dealings with Iran. While Sara Cohen and Miguel Fabretti lead the investigation from the Ertzaintza, Garrincha infiltrates the circle of the main suspect, drug trafficker Julio Arechavaleta. The game is dangerous, and the boundaries between justice, revenge, and raison d’état blur. The novel explores dirty wars between business clans, political corruption, and the moral dilemma of a man who must decide how far he is willing to go.

In Garrincha and His Beretta, an arson attack devastates the Garay family factory in Sestao. All suspicion points to their rival, Boroa Group, and its president, Sabino Goyarrola—but the case takes an unexpected turn when Goyarrola and his lawyer are murdered by professional hitmen. Suddenly, the Garays go from victims to suspects. Garrincha delves into a web of blackmail, infiltration, and media pressure to uncover who is pulling the strings behind an escalation of violence that threatens to destroy everyone involved.

A dark, urban, contemporary noir saga where each case stands alone but the past never stays buried—and where the Basque Country becomes a character in its own right, as beautiful as it is ruthless.

RELEVANT FACTS: Juan Infante is a writer and lawyer from Bilbao specializing in noir fiction. He combines his legal background with a critical взгляд on corruption, power, and crime in the Basque Country. He is the author of the series starring Garrincha, a former gangster turned investigator.

The Tomás Garrincha series has enormous audiovisual potential as a thriller thanks to its cinematic pace. With the tension of classic noir, a grey, brooding atmosphere, twist-filled plots, compelling investigations, and complex characters embodying believable moral conflicts, the series is ideal material for a suspense or thriller adaptation, in the vein of Gomorrah, Hierro, or Marshland.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV series, Miniseries, Feature film, TV film.

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.