Juan Gómez-Jurado on his Antonia Scott thrillers: ‘There are ideas within ideas’

Spanish author Juan Gómez-Jurado on his Antonia Scott thrillers

Antonia Scott, the protagonist of Spanish journalist and author Juan Gómez-Jurado’s Red Queen thriller series, has a fascination for rare words from different languages. In the second book of the series, Black Wolf, published by Pan MacMillan in April, Antonia finds the Tamil word, erupararkkiratu — roughly translating to rare or impossible, like pigs can fly.

“When I wrote Red Queen, finding words that were special in other languages that would also serve the plot was difficult,” says Juan over a video call from Madrid. “When Red Queen was published, I had readers sending me words; one reader even complied a small book of special words! I got the Tamil word from a friend who is a translator in Mumbai. She sent me a couple of words. I chose erupararkkiratu as it felt special and connected to the story.”

Fascinated by the number of languages in the Indian subcontinent, Juan says, there are connections between the material world, language and the soul. “Somewhere in the centre of that triangle are practices specific to that culture. The fact that there are eight billion ways of approaching the world fascinates Antonia. She is on an impossible quest to understand herself by understanding how others feel.”

Red Queen, published in Spanish in 2018 and in English in 2023, features Antonia being coaxed out of her attic flat in Madrid by Jon Gutiérrez, a disgraced policeman from Bilbao, to track a serial killer. The Red Queen in the title is a reference to the Red Queen Project, which collects brilliant minds around the world to solve crimes that stumped global law enforcement agencies. Red Queen, also has the obvious Alice in Wonderland link.

“There are many connections in my books,” says the 46-year-old author. “There are ideas within ideas. I do not want to give away spoilers for the third installment of the Red Queen series, White King (to be released in March 2025). Let’s say there is a strong connection between Alice in Wonderland and the works of Arthur Conan Doyle in Red Queen. In Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen runs to remain in the same place.”

This, Juan says, connects the title to the theory of evolution, where species must constantly evolve to keep their place. “Similarly, to keep pace with criminals, an investigator must evolve. A red-and-white chess set plays an important part in the book and is another connection between the Red Queen and Alice.” 

Though Antonia has been compared to Lisbeth Salander, the bisexual, tattooed protagonist of Steig Larsson’s Millennium series, Juan says the similarities are superficial. “When you have a strong female character leading a thriller, Lisbeth obviously comes to mind. Lisbeth is a wonderful character and I love her. The characters, however, are different. Lisbeth is a hacker, political and mostly works alone. For Antonia, her intelligence is a burden and a curse.”