The irrelevant mystery, the involuntary detective, the melting clue: notes on La pista de Hielo, a neopolicial by Roberto Bolaño

Abstract

This article analyzes La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink, 1993), the third novel by Roberto Bolaño, as an exponent of the Ibero-American neopolicial, focusing on how two of the main dramatic elements of the detective tale, the enigma and the detective figure, are decentralized through a series of narrative mechanisms that eventually dismantle traditional genre conventions. Furthermore, we will link La pista de hielo and its narrative key elements with the rest of the novelistic of the Chilean author, as well as with the main exponents of the neopolicial, such as Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Leonardo Padura or Ramón Díaz Eterovic.