Mysterious murder on the coast Doctor Umberto Uberman spends the summer with distant relatives in a lonely motel on the coast. He meets his recent patient, Mary Gutierrez. With her sister Emilia and her fiancé Athuel, she is sunbathing on the beach, weaving affairs and clearly acting strangely. When a woman dies of poisoning, all the occupants of the hotel fall under suspicion. No one thought that this death would not be the only one.
As if a warning, and perhaps for the heat of the atmosphere, a sandstorm constantly falls on the coast, slowly falling asleep in the motel and threatening its existence. From the plot could well be an intriguing exciting thriller, plunging the reader into the abyss of anxious anticipation, which does not let go until the very end. However, apparently, this was not the goal initially – for the married writer couple Silvina Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares (based on the novel “The Hate of Love” of which the film was staged), and then – and the director Alejandro Mesi.
In fact, we have an Argentine atmospheric and lyrical narrative, which cannot but delay. There is everything here: the atmosphere and Latin American flavor, amorous passions (even if the creators do not particularly focus on this, but they are important in understanding the story), an intriguing detective story, even a kind of humor. The latter is rather in an ironic allusion to the well-known world detectives and their techniques. Like a short-sighted detective, a non-standard love line (those who have already seen the film will understand me), etc. And these allusions are quite subtle and at first glance barely noticeable.
The book was published back in 1946 and was the result of a creative experiment, a kind of literary game by Casares – Ocampo. According to critics and friends of the couple, they wanted to create a series of detective stories with the participation of the main character – Dr. Umberto Uberman. Why didn't he become his Argentine Dr. Watson? Apparently, the answer should be sought in the biography of Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo.
7 out of 10