Carlos Fuentes and his attempts at detective stories

Abstract

The only work by Carlos Fuentes belonging to the detective story genre is La cabeza de la hidra (1978). This story, which centers on problems relating to oil smuggling into the United States during the 70s, is to be found within the contexts of the Latin-American black novel, presenting certain features which approximate the neo-detective narrative. With a remarkable hybridization of genres, the narrative parody of a detective is presented which happens to be the Latin-American opposite version of James Bond. The article analyses the novel with the purpose of determining the function that the neo-detective genre performs in it.