Where do I start with this
book? It's one of the few books I've read that doesn't fit a given
genre. It is thrilling, sexy, frightening and spooky in equal measure. It is
pacey, has excellent and very memorable characters; there is love, loss, desperation,
suspense and it's all wrapped up in the atmospheric backdrop of early
twentieth-century Barcelona.
The novel follows the life and loves, the ups and
downs of David Martin, a talented but poorly paid journalist
with a wealthy benefactor as he fights his way out of poverty, start to write
under a pseudonym, fall desperately ill, only to be saved by the mysterious
Senor Corelli with a book deal to end all book deals - One hundred thousand
Francs for a single book to be written over a twelve-month period. (I'm still
waiting for my letter Senor Corelli - oh, no, actually, scrap that, I think
I'll stick with what I've got).
His muse, a young girl by the name of Isabella, is thrust upon him one night when she leaves her family to become a writer, ending up on his doorstep because he is the only writer she knows, and I couldn't tell at first whether she was going to be a distraction - she is young, beautiful and talented - a love interest, or whether she would fill his world with further anguish, but after a rocky start they find a bond and David takes her to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books so she can choose.
After a deal is struck with the mysterious Senor Corelli, Martin's illness wanes, but
there is skulduggery abound. His previous employers, who were unwilling to
compromise on his contract, are suddenly killed in an arson attack, his beloved Christina
is suddenly betrothed to another (Martin's benefactor friend) only to be driven to despair
and . . . (no spoilers here I'm afraid) as the body count rises and David
becomes ever more entrenched in the mystery that is Senor Corelli and the fate
that seemed to befall his previous employee (Diego Marlasca - who was also commissioned to write a book and, it turns out, lived in the very same house as Martin - The Tower House) the
similarities between them becomes all too clear. Wherever
David turns it seems, people are dying, being killing or going missing and with the police following his every move he leaves Barcelona not a moment to soon, to go in search of his beloved Christina, only to find . . .
I'll give nothing away here but when he eventually returns and uncovers the truth, is chased around Barcelona, running for his life, cornered, trapped in the cable car, hanging, suspended hundreds of feet in the air, confronted by an armed man with blood on his hands and murder on his mind, you wiz through the last third of the book so quickly it leaves you dizzy, wanting more, which is good because this is only book two of four, so there's more than enough to quench your enthusiasm.
A shockingly good read then, and all the better for it being part of a four-book series but just as good as a stand-alone novel.
If we rated books out of ten, this would get nine and a three quarters, it is that good, so it's as near to a five star book as you can get without
it actually being so and very much worth a read. On to book three then, which I’ve
not read before, so here’s hoping.
Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books to see if I have read them yet and if I have not, why not message me with your recommendations.
