|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
There is no question in my mind that Robert Wilson is a great writer, one on the same general level as P. D. James. Like James he has a mastery of language, along with the ability to generate in readers a strong impulse to keep reading. His book A SMALL DEATH IN LISBON won CWA's Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1999. There is considerable similarity between that book and his newest, THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE, in that both take place in two time periods, one in each book in a leading Iberian city. Both find a connection between World War II and the present, and both deal with unsavory characters who have made new lives. TBMOS begins with a gruesome killing, that of a rich restauranteur, Raul Jimenez. His body is found with his eyelids cut off with surgical precision, so as to force him to look at something he did not want to see. The Spanish chief inspector assigned to the case, Xavier Falcon, not only brings a lot of personal baggage with him, but gradually finds himself more than an impartial investigator; he becomes rather a part of the case via his father, a famous artist who died two years earlier. The father lived mainly in Tangier before he became famous, and afterwards in Seville. Inspector Jefe (Chief Inspector) Falcon learns that the murdered man also had a past in Tangier. The father left, among other things, his journals written years earlier. His written advice to Falcon is to destroy the journal without reading it, but he obviously expected otherwise. One of the values of a book of this nature is that it gives us an interesting look into recent history that we might have forgotten or never known. Falcon's father in his youth joined the Spanish Legion in Morocco and participated in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). After Franco's Falangistas won the war, Spain maintained a cautious neutrality favoring Nazi Germany, and two Spanish divisions of "volunteers" actually joined the Germans in fighting on the Soviet Front. Falcon Sr. was in the Blue Division, where he survived by being an aggressive and merciless killer. Following the retreat of his division, Francisco Falcon returns to Tangier, which was an international city with the spirit of almost "anything goes." He becomes reasonably rich as a partner to a shrewd younger man, the same Raul Jimenez who is later murdered, in various enterprises that are not always perfectly legal. Jimenez takes care of the planning and accounting, and Falcon of any necessary enforcement and killing. At the same time Falcon develops his skill as a painter, and even becomes patronized by real-life millionaire heiress Barbara Hutton [my comment: once married to Cary Grant], who owned a palace in Tangier. Inspector Jefe Falcon reads the journal only in parts, and toward the end of the story even finds that some crucial pages are missing. The journal also records the increasingly hedonistic sexual adventures of his twice married, twice widowed, father and some of his father's friends. The present-day story takes place almost entirely in the marvelous, fun-loving (as it is known as) city of Seville. There is a second victim, a prostitute who police suspect had facilitated the killer. And later there is still another killing, that of a Seville art dealer who had also spent years in Tangier. The inspector jefe fences verbally with the clever wife of Raul Jimenez. She is a leading suspect and, after haughtily fraustrating his attempts to incriminate herself, also shows her willingness to be seduced. Falcon also faces the sometimes open hostility of his assistant, Inspector Ramirez, who had been disappointed when Falcon got the promotion that Ramirez expected was his. A further complication comes from the influential presence in the case of an official under Spanish law called the duty judge, Esteban Calderon. Falcon and Calderon find themselves almost feeling friendship for each other, except for a little problem: Calderon has a sexual relationship with Falcon's ex-wife, who hates Falcon but whom he still loves. The main complication in Falcon's investigation starts with the moment he sees the condition of the first victim, a sight that in spite of his experience nauseates him. As his knowledge of his father and his progress in the murder investigation grow together, Falcon becomes more frightened in his thoughts and more erratic in the eyes of his subordinates until he is on the verge of fearing that he is losing his mind. He sees a psychiatrist who helps him recover somewhat, but he is still wandering in dangerous mental territory. As we know from many examples, it is difficult to plot a mystery which is at once novel, compelling, and beautifully constructed and still give the satisfaction in the ending that all the rest of the story has promised. I would call TBMOS a masterpiece of crime fiction except for one thing: a considerable reliance on the heavy hand of coincidence, alluded to in the story as synchronicity. That, plus the fact that the killer does not even enter the story, at least by name and face, until the last chapters, mar what would otherwise rank with the very best mysteries. Like P. D. James, Wilson has got a rare writing skill and the extensive experience on which to base enthralling novels, but, also like James, he could benefit from some improvement in the plotting. In spite of what I see above as a weakness, TBMOS is still head and shoulders above the average crime novel published today. Reading this book will be a reward to even the most discriminating of aficionados of the crime novel genre.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, January 2003
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
