The Prisoner of Heaven, book review. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

If you've ever read The Shadow of the Wind (and let's face it, many millions have) and thought it was a standalone book, that the story ended there, that the author's subsequent books where independent of each other, then you'd be right and wrong. This book, the third in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (and shortest by some margin) is the link between the first two - the afore mentioned Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game (which anyone who is familiar with my blog will know, are held by me in high regard) and therefore moves both Daniel Sempere's story and that of David Martin to a point where they converge with the help of the indelible Fermin as the connection.

With its heart in your mouth pace one minute, genuine fear the next, to giggling from the shear absurdity of Fermin's tomfoolery, the pages here turn quickly, and you are under no illusion that even though this is a short book, the author has not dropped the ball and that you are invested in the same brilliance that went before.

We still have Fermin with his jokes, Daniel's beautiful wife Bea, their little boy Julian - named after the unfortunate Julian Carax - who wrote The Shadow of the Wind in book one; Daniel's father, who is aging but well, Bernarda, who is betrothed to Fermin (which is the crux of the book) and the deeply disturbing Valls, who's methods of torture: starvation, solitary confinement, bribery and poisoning to name but a few, are slowly revealed as we learn of Fermin's past and why he believes he will never be able to marry the love of his life.

The tangled web that unthreads through the pages of this book brings joy and sorrow, and with Fermin confessing his darkest secret, the promise he made to Martin when incarcerated together - Martin is the prisoner of heaven by the way - that he would look after and protect the love of Martin's life, Isabella (Daniel's mother) if their escape attempt worked, is all handled with aplomb. Here is a man who has befriended Daniel (who will be his best-man at his wedding), his father, works in their shop, and has found what he hopes is true love, but he holds a secret which, in his eyes, is his worst crime.

That crime being: his failure to fulfil his promise to Senor Martin by allowing Valls to get to Isabella and poison her.

The Prisoner of Heaven is written in the same beautifully menacing but somehow witty prose that lead me to attributing the first two books in this series with top honours and possesses the same, must-keep-reading-whatever-the-time-is-because-I-just-can't-put-it-down, style that will have readers up well into night, early in the morning and late for their Zoom meetings.

A fantastic read then - four and a half stars.

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