- Paperback: 592 pages
- Publisher: UK General Books; 1 edition (Feb 12 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007117817
- ISBN-13: 978-0007117819
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 4.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 322 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #304,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
After trying his hand at spy fiction in The Company of Strangers, Robert Wilson returns to his detective-thriller roots with The Blind Man of Seville, a grimly bewitching and character-driven yarn about people confronting their most hidden horrors.
"It was only right that there should be at least one murder in Holy Week," muses Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón as he's called out during Spain's Semana Santa festivities to probe the death of a prosperous Seville restaurateur, Raúl Jiménez. The deceased was found strapped to a chair with his eyelids removed, facing a television on which had been showing a video of him entertaining prostitutes. Jiménez's heart had failed as he struggled to escape. This murder is "more extraordinary than any I have seen in my career," Falcón tells the businessman's widow, as he embarks on an investigation that will lead to the slayings of a hooker and an art dealer, and force the homicide cop into a game of wits against a killer obsessed with the contradictions between illusion and reality. Meanwhile, Falcón is himself obsessed with the long-secreted journals kept by his late father, a famous painter, whose brutal acts during the Spanish Civil War and subsequent hedonism in North Africa shaped Javier's life... and will make him the killer's next target.
Wilson's plot turns rather creakily on the coincidence of Falcón discovering a photograph of his father among Jiménez's things. And lengthy excerpts from the elder Falcón's diaries, while they reveal links between the book's secondary players, and are interesting for their portrayal of wartime Europe and postwar Tangier, nonetheless hobble this story's pace and distract from the modern crimes at its center. Still, there's a poetic edge to this author's prose that makes even his most gruesome or tragic scenes worthy of rereading, and in Javier Falcón--a lonely outsider who shadows his ex-wife and has a perplexing aversion to milk--he creates a police protagonist as satisfyingly and humanly flawed as any since Zé Coelho, from Wilson's outstanding A Small Death in Lisbon. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Proving that even the most talented authors can have an off day, Wilson (A Small Death in Lisbon, etc.) has come up with a long, dense, often brilliantly written but finally off-putting and depressing story, which starts with the grisly murder of a Seville restaurant tycoon. Parts of the novel work wonderfully: an interview between Javier Falc¢n, the chief of Seville's homicide squad, and the victim's young widow, crackles with wit and electricity as she gets more out of him than he does out of her. And Falc¢n (whose late father, a famous painter, had links to the dead tycoon going back to their days in the Foreign Legion in Tangiers during the Spanish Civil War) is often a fascinating figure-when he's not imploding with the weight of his discoveries about his father's past or the stress of his job and a recently failed marriage. Descriptions of a ranch where fighting bulls are bred and of a bullfight are worthy of Hemingway, as are scenes from life in Seville during Holy Week. But in the end, there's too much blood, too many old journals, too much torture and depravity to absorb and process into art and/or entertainment.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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It had started the moment he'd walked into that room and had seen that face. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It had started the moment he'd walked into that room and had seen that face. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant Psychological Thriller,
By
This review is from: Blind Man Of Seville (Paperback)
Javier Falcon book 1Inspector Jefe Falcon is called to the home of Raul Jimenez, a successful and politically influential man in his 70s --- he had been tortured until he died of heart failure. The eyelids have been cut from the mutilated body by his killer so that he cannot avoid the images playing on his TV screen, this, triggers a reaction in Falcon that is something more than horror. The primary suspect at the outset is the widow, Dona Consuelo Jimenez. But the widow is certainly not the only suspect, perhaps the murderer came out of Raul's distant past. Falcon is tormented by this murder, more than any other crime, as the case proceeds it strikes fear into his heart...what twisted mind could have committed such a gruesome act. During the investigation, he sees a link to his family, curious he consults his father's journals revealing a dark past.... The pace in this book heightens when the journals are introduced and becomes a nail bitter as details are revealed. The author masterfully describes physical sensations: sights, smells and feelings are accomplished in a profound and disturbing way. Unfortunately, this novel includes a hefty dose of words and phrases from another language, a distraction that takes adjustment, a glossary or translation would have helped with the flow of the story. The author exploits fear to its maximum with fascinating exchanges between characters wanting to forget their painful memories and associations. The most lovable character is Falcon, he is breathtakingly lifelike. This is a brilliant psychological thriller, an intellectual as well as frightening experience, one that draws you deeply into the subconscious texture of the plot. A wonderful read....
4.0 out of 5 stars
Third Strong Book Proceed With Caution,
This review is from: The Blind Man of Seville (Hardcover)
I have read and commented upon the two previous novels offered to readers by Robert Wilson in The USA, "A Small Death In Lisbon" and "The Company Of Strangers". This third work, "The Blind Man Of Seville", initially left me less pleased than his previous works, and though I have changed my assessment, it is for the moment the least enjoyable of his works that I have read. Other books that have never been released in The United States are set to begin release this summer, so his entire body of work will finally be available to readers here.Like the two previous books I mention this is also heavily based upon History. If I was rating this book strictly on style and skill I would give it a four star ranking as I have. If rating the book in terms of enjoyable reading, it would just have made three stars, and that is due to several themes I rather not read about in fiction. I also think a writer with the talent of Mr. Wilson can produce books without choosing subjects or subject matter of the type he chose. I know these situations exist and there are plenty of non-fiction books I can read to learn about these horrific actions directed at children. I do not need them when reading fiction. I am not suggesting he was being sensational or puerile, just that the topic left me cold on the book. Mr. Wilson has several storylines that are entwined throughout the book, and while he resolves them nicely the book seemed a bit busy at times. In his notes he explains that the writing of the book was interrupted and that may explain why this book is less crisp than the previous two I have read. Children play a role in this book, whether as children or scarred adults. The descriptions are extremely graphic and unsettling, as their subject virtually demands they be by definition. However, as I said, the brutalization of children by pederasts is not a subject I would choose for reading a book of fiction The description of the book is very brief and does not suggest the deviant behavior the book includes. As much as I admire this man's work, and even as I will continue to read his new books, had I known more about the contents of this book, I would likely have passed. Mr. Wilson is a very talented man with a pen, and the material he uses in this book is necessary for the tale he is telling. It is not the type of material that I enjoy in reading fiction. All that said, I look forward to his next book, and I maintained the fourth star because my disliking a facet of a book's subject matter does not mean I should penalize the book in its entirety.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ah, Seville,
By
This review is from: The Blind Man of Seville (Hardcover)
A very good read - I am in the process of searching for Mr. Wilson's other books involving this book's main character, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon. What I enjoyed the most about this book are the descriptions of Seville - the street names, cafes, hotels, etc. My husband and I were very fortunate to travel to Seville two years ago and actually went to the very bull-fighting ring mentioned in the book. Mr. Wilson's description of the bullfight was just perfect and it took me back to the night we attended the fights.I enjoyed the entire story, especially the journals. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Wilson's works.
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