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Product Description
Quill & Quire
Current popular culture has an almost unholy fascination with torture, from the singleminded Jack Bauer on 24 to the seemingly innumerable Saw films. Award-winning crime writer Giles Blunt contributes to this canon in Breaking Lorca, but adds thoughtfulness to a cringe-worthy subject. Blunt is known for his Northern Ontario series featuring detective John Cardinal, but in this standalone novel he has created a suspenseful tale set in the U.S. and El Salvador around the time that the latter country found itself embroiled in a vicious civil war. Our protagonist is Victor Pena, a former army officer rescued from the firing squad by his uncle and enlisted in a secret unit dedicated to acquiring intelligence from the enemy. Victor, who dreams of escaping to freedom in America, is out of his depth in his uncle’s crew, among whom reading is a sign of weakness and savagery the only acceptable mode of male bonding. To prove his worth, he begins to implement the violence of his new craft on a mysterious female detainee named Lorca, whose courage and determination to stay silent astound him. This is a crisply written book. The torture scenes feel all too real, and include graphic details that make a reader pause in contemplation of the horror that one person can inflict on another. Blunt manipulates tension by slowly revealing Victor’s fears, then increasing the pace when the squad returns its victims to the world. Blunt’s background as a TV writer is evident in the last third of the book, when Victor, redeemed in the eyes of his uncle, is given a chance to travel to Fort Bening for training, whereupon he flees to New York. Still obsessed with what he did to Lorca (who has conveniently escaped and is, indeed, broken), he finds and befriends her under false pretences. The book’s ending is pure thriller, with coincidences tripping over one another (plus the requisite chase scene). The shift in tone is disappointing, following as it does on the earlier, more subtle study of a reluctant torturer’s inner life.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"An utterly vivid, completely disturbing account of how thugs with authority unrestrained by the rule of law and untempered by the quality of mercy can go about the physical, mental and emotional destruction of a person."
— The Gazette
"Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon."
— Jonathan Kellerman, The New York Times bestselling author of Capital Crimes
"A tour de force, sorrowing and direct, sharp as a knife blade, beautifully written — an unforgettable window into the human capacity for cruelty and courage."
— The Globe and Mail
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Different direction for Blunt,
By
This review is from: Breaking Lorca (Hardcover)
Giles Blunt is one of my favourite Canadian authors. I'm a big fan of the John Cardinal mysteries and loved his last stand alone novel No Such Creature. Breaking Lorca is a complete departure from earlier works.Victor, a bookish, reluctant soldier in El Salvador is 'rescued' from death by firing squad by his uncle. His uncle, Captain Pena, is a specialist in the army - an interrogation expert. He means to school Victor in his trade. He is an expert in torture. When a suspected female rebel, Lorca, is imprisoned, Pena decides that she should be Victor's learning ground. Victor is not by nature a violent, evil man. In fact he describes himself as a coward. What will someone do to keep themself alive? This is not an easy read. Descriptions and dialogue are absolutely horrific and brutal. I did have to read it in small doses. What kept me going? My faith in Giles Blunt as an author. The second part of the novel moves to America, where Victor seeks redemption from his past. But can the past ever be escaped? What possessed Blunt to write such a novel? He was inspired by Canadian author and activist Margaret Atwood's poem "Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture", which imagines "a fearful man paid to clean up the torture chamber." A compelling, thought provoking narrative of what is most likely happening somewhere in the world at this moment. I was glad I chose to read til the last page.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely stunning,
By
This review is from: Breaking Lorca (Hardcover)
I have probably read close to 1,000 novels over the past decade. Breaking Lorca is the first book that I closed after reading and promptly burst into tears. Blunt's matter-of-fact delivery is perfectly suited to the story, a series of encounters between a women tortured by the government in El Salvador in the eighties and one of her guilt-ridden torturers. Breaking Lorca is brilliant, horrible and ultimately redemptive.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Growth without change? I don't think so.... Donna Carrick,
By
This review is from: Breaking Lorca (Hardcover)
There comes a time in every writer's life when he or she must ask: has my work become stagnant? Am I churning out more of the same, or are my ideas still fresh?It's a tough question -- especially for successful writers. After all, who wants to mess with a good thing? When all the feedback is positive, and the fan base is loyal, like it was for Canadian author Giles Blunt with his "Cardinal" mystery series, why would anyone want to strike out on a new path? Readers resent change in the same way that families do. Every mother has, at some time in her life, wanted to change some personal habit, only to find that her mate or children were very uncomfortable with any tilt to the status quo. So it is with writers. However, there are many ways to measure "success". It is not merely a factor of readership, or of accolades. Success can also describe the artist's ambition to stretch, to reach new territory, to become more than the sum of his "known" parts. With his latest novel, "Breaking Lorca", Giles Blunt has become an inspiration to many writers. He may have ruffled a few loyal Cardinal fans, (in fact, I'm quite sure he did) but by blazing for himself this new trail he has proven himself to be worthy of a standing in the halls of Canadian Liturature. By the way, I should point out that, like many Canuks, I shudder at the stuffy, over-touted phrase "CANLIT". It carries with it a pretentious air of exclusivity that hinders rather than fosters our true National Artistic Identity. Having said that, there is an undeniable standard that we Canadians strive for, and Blunt has entered into the realm of greatness with his latest two works: "Breaking Lorca", and before that the wickedly humourous "No Such Creature". I am proud to have met Blunt, albeit briefly, on several occasions, and to have heard him read. Without a doubt, his recent artistic "mutations" have been the result of much effort, and they have earned him an undeniable place in those haughty yet sacred annals. Donna Carrick, May 18, 2009 www.donnacarrick.com
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