Cracking up: Interpreting the crime scene(s) in Claudia Piñeiro's Las grietas de Jara

Lasgrietas de Jara (2009) [A Crack in the Wall (2013)], like many fictional works of Claudia Piñeiro (Argentina, b. 1960), employs certain recognizable elements of the crime novel. Although no police or detectives ever investigate, this novel has a buried crime scene at its core, around which the plot is constructed. In summary, a firm of architects has rid itself of a troublesome neighbour, Nelson Jara, who was interrupting their construction work by persistently complaining of a crack in his wall. The scene of Jara’s death is the building site itself; his body is flung into the concrete foundations. The completed building then becomes the architects’ office, guarding their guilty secret. I examine the centrality of this subterranean crime scene to Piñeiro’s novel, where construction as/over the scene of a crime lends itself forcefully to symbolic and ethical interpretation.