Relax. The Four Towers is not Gandalf seeing double. Although from what one gathers there are evil Sauron like characters and their Saruman enablers. It’s Leandro Perez’s debut novel. Perez, is an El Mundo journalist and Real Madrid fan, and the plot is centered around the tumultuous reign of Jose Mourinho and the destructive locker room leaks that showed a team in turmoil and at loggerheads with him. There are no names named with the novel using the connect the dots allusion. Las Cuatro Torres, its Spanish title, refers to the business area in Madrid.
The protagonist, Juan Torca, who seems to have a varied career as a mercenary, a secret agent, and a murderer is commissioned by Javier Marse, an old friend who Torca meets up with in one of the Four Towers. “You have to find out who the bloody snitch is that is telling Ramón Ribeyro all that is going on in the Real Madrid dressing room.” Things get juicier and twistier when Torca encounters Nerea, the hotel receptionist and Adriana, Marse’s wife in this crime thriller. But Perez, insists that he has not written it to finger any particular person, not Florentino Perez, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Jose Mourinho. There are photographs, timelines, news clippings, articles, and references to real events but the setting is entirely fictional.
The novel’s backdrop is the 15-M protests, the electoral campaigns of Mariano Rajoy and Alfredo Rubalcalba, the Retiro and Behobia races, the Madrid derby and El Clasico, goals and tackles, and cameos by Cristiano Ronaldo and author Perez-Reverte. There are homages to writers like Murakami, TV series the Sopranos, the Wire, and musicians like Quique Gonzalez.
Such a novel must be fueled by a sense. And in an interview, Leandro Perez, reveals he did not care for Mourinho’s behaviour. He was too defensive and was responsible for Real’s loss in the Champions League semi-finals. As a character in the novel says, “he wasn’t as smart as he thought himself to be.” There you have it. Mourinho is still stinking up the joint and now its a novel.