S H Villa

Varigo - Home to the Healing Art of Crime

Varigo is home to the world’s first Healer/Investigator, Jesús. The 22 volume fast-paced crime fiction of Spanish lives, happenings and history. The Healing Art of Crime is set in a small town in the mountains of southern Spain and travels outwards from there. It is a crime series in that most of the issues covered are social/criminal problems to be found in Spain (and elsewhere, of course). The Spanish civil war, tree-hugging, animal rescue, love and marriage (Jesús style), various romances and relationship issues come into it. There is a range of protagonists, particularly Jesús the healer who is central, Carmen of the Guardia Civil and Gheorghe the Romanian investigator, and others who feature as the series spreads its wings. All with humour.

Interview with S H Villa

Q. This is an unusual crime series. All the worst in human nature set off by the best. And a healer/investigator. So what do you accomplish by this?

SHV. A seat on the floor between two stools mainly.

Q. Comfortable?

SHV. Not really. I personally enjoy good crime fiction. I like the mystery, the search. I don’t like the gore and violence. And if gore and violence are present, I want to understand. Not sit in some kind of judgment, but understand. The whys, the wherefores, the history. Then, suddenly I seemed to be writing psychospiritual crime fiction.

Q. Why? What’s the point? Is this what the public wants?

SHV. Not so far. But someday, perhaps. Our free will exists because we possess two minds. We have a Higher Mind or Consciousness which is eternally connected to all that is - all life both manifest and unmanifest. When born into a body we nearly all come to see ourselves as separate, unconnected; and so acquire a fear mind or ego to protect that individual self. We compete, we become greedy. Free will allows us to choose which ‘mind’ will guide us: Act from fear or in accordance with eternal Truth. Love, in fact. We always in every moment have the option to Awaken. Or we can stay asleep, caring, worrying, pursuing everyday goals which hide from us the magnificence of that of which we are part. So I write books which illustrate those choices, including a character who eventually awakens.

Q. Yes, I notice your characters evolve. Some of them are unrecognisable they are so changed. Do you really think this is possible?

SHV. No I think everything is genetic and we die as we were born. OF COURSE IT’S POSSIBLE!!! Why are we here at all? Our Awareness quotient is everything when it comes to evolution - spiritual evolution. Our Consciousness evolves, we become more accepting, less judgmental, less guilty, more loving, more connected and, above all, more forgiving.

Q. Forgiveness seems to play a big part in this series. Is that intentional?

SHV. Forgiveness, says A Course in Miracles, is the only thing which can stand as Truth in this manifest world.

Q. Speaking of manifest worlds, your characters do a lot of astral travelling. Is this personal experience?

SHV. I wish. The astral plane is one where we are connected, where all life is One and this is the feeling I hope is given in the books when this happens.

Q. Is Jesús the healer enlightened then?

SHV. He has a powerful experience in volume 4, Lost & Found. His mind stops. He can no longer be a prey to fear. Through him I try to understand what that would be like. Other characters he associates with also evolve rapidly thanks to the contact, the opening, the Love, whatever you might call it. Others become healers. I do hold the belief that such powers are open to us all, should we open ourselves to them. How? That is the question.

Q. Good luck - maybe a third stool will appear between the two stools of crime fiction and mind-body-spirit writing. The hybrid stool.?

SHV. LOL. The evolved stool? Thank you. And gratitude to all who read the books.