The Midnight Palace, book review. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

Having read the worldwide bestseller, The Shadow of the Wind by this author, and having been somewhat blown away by it, I was intrigued to see how one of his lesser known books might fair, and I have to say, I was not disappointed.

Having lived his life in an orphanage in Calcutta, Ben is turning sixteen and will soon be released from the institute he has called home since he was taken there as a new-born. He will be free to pursue his ambitions, his dreams and carve out a life for himself but there's something dark in his past that he must conquer first, something he has no knowledge of until his mentor and headmaster of the orphanage is brutally attacked.

Enter Sheere, the sister he never knew he had, Aryami, their grandmother, Jawahal the wraith of a man who glows from the embers of a fire that consumed him just days after Ben was born, and add the dark depth of 1930's Calcutta and the scene is set.

The writing here may well be aimed at a younger audience but it lacks nothing for it, with delicious passages like, 'a suffocating mist rose from the Hooghly River, seeping through the streets of the Black Town like the fumes from a poised marsh' speeding you through the story.

It is a short book, too so you can whizz through it in a day or so, (which might be good or bad, I'm still yet to decide) but the writing is top notch, the characters are likeable and believable and the villain, decidedly chilling.

So all in all a good read then and one that if you haven't read Zafon before, would be an easy way to get to know his work. For me, I love his books, so if you can't find this one but come across another, just grab it and enjoy.

Four stars for The Midnight Palace then, for its excellent setting of scene, it's Gothic portrayal of 1930's Calcutta and its very spooky villain.