El Cobrador del Frac is the name of a company based in Spain that specializes in sending out men dressed in topcoats and tails to humiliate debtors into paying up. From its original Spanish, cobrador del frac translates as “The Dress-Coat Collector.”

The cobrador del frac is mentioned in Glass Houses:

“So,” said Gamache, looking at Matheo. “Are you considering bringing the cobrador del frac to Québec? Are you asking me if it would be legal?”

Matheo and Lea stared at Gamache, then Matheo laughed.

“Good God, no. I’m showing you this because Lea and I think that that”—he pointed out the window—“is a cobrador del frac.”

“A debt collector?” asked Gamache, and felt a slight frisson. Like the warning before a quake.
Louise Penny, Glass Houses

Although the cobrador del frac is real, Louise admits that the history of it is completely made up for the sake of the story. In Glass Houses, Beauvoir explains that the cobrador has its roots in the 1300s during the Spanish Inquisition when “lepers, the insane, babies who were born with deformities….those suspected of being witches” were exiled to La Isla del Cobrador. Those strong enough to survive their banishment returned – now cloaked – to torment the people who had expelled them.

Louise says that she had heard of the cobrador del frac many years prior to writing the book in which it is mentioned, but had filed that little gem away to be used at a later time. That time came when writing Glass Houses.

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One Comment

  1. Sometimes silence is louder than words. I think the company in Spain that uses this method of debt collection has hit on an interesting means of modifying behavior. Nothing is more nerve wracking than someone always there watching but saying nothing. It really makes one look through their longhouse to see what wrong doing might need to be dealt with.
    In Glass Houses I thought it was very effective using El Cobrador Del Frac in conjunction with Halloween and the haunting weather that was occurring at that time. I love how Louise weaves tid bits such as this into her stories.

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