Since I’m a writer—someone who leads a rather reclusive life, devoted to reading and imagination—if I were asked to choose between the three roles mentioned... It’s very hard for me to imagine myself as an emergency room doctor; it requires a great deal of skill and a cool head, and someone with my sensitivity couldn’t be a doctor working in the ER. I don’t even like visiting hospitals as a patient. Nor could I work as a zookeeper. I’m not an animal lover—not even of pets, like cats or dogs. Taking care of zoo animals on a daily basis is also unthinkable for me. Which role is left for me? Crime scene investigator. A difficult role, but one that requires intelligence above all else. I can imagine myself in that role.

Although some literary scholars consider the suspense or detective genre to be a minor genre, I believe it is one of the most interesting contemporary genres. It reveals the dark side of cities and their growth in the modern world. Crime thrives as cities grow; there is more violence, greater inequality among people, and more money of illegal origin in circulation, making a police force with detectives dedicated to criminal investigation essential.

The reality of a police crime scene investigator is probably not exactly as we’ve seen it in the many American or international crime TV series, such as “Murder, She Wrote”, “Columbo”, or “Crime Scene”. Nor is it exactly as great crime writers like Agatha Christie or Dashiell Hammett imagined it. But it is undoubtedly one of the most popular narrative genres of our time. When I taught creative writing workshops for children and young adults, suspense stories were the most popular among my students. I would give them some prompts to help them build their stories, and they would write short stories. In the photo I’m sharing with you, I was with my young students playing detective.

That literary, television, and cinematic portrayal of police work—which I, like millions of others, have always enjoyed—is what led me to consider a career as a police investigator. I see myself more in a role that requires intellectual skill. I think that behind society’s major changes are perhaps those minds working behind the scenes, fighting to maintain law and order in cities that have become corrupt and criminalized.