Silent And The Damned [Hardcover]

The greatest thrillers and mysteries are compelling novels that have a mystery at their core. And so it is with Robert Wilson's The Vanished Hands, a beautifully crafted work that, while it stands independently, builds upon Wilson's prior work, The Blind Man of Seville. Wilson's work is just a gem for the genre; it has solid writing, believable characters, and a difficult, but ultimately believable plot. It is a sophisticated and interesting thriller.

When a wealthy businessman and his wife are found dead in their home in a upscale neighborhood of Seville, Wilson's hero, Inspector Javier Falcon, is at first called upon to determine whether their deaths are a murder/suicide or a double murder. But as the investigation commences, bodies keep piling up: a famous, but washed-up actor takes his own life; a Russian prostitute disappears after a brief interrogation by the police and then turns up murdered, a high-ranking police official commits suicide. Falcon believes all these deaths are linked, and are not accidental, but he can't quite connect the dots.

There's a reason why, of course, which is that the plot is intricate and sometimes difficult to follow. But that's one of the reasons why I like Wilson's works; like the real world, they aren't always tidy and linear. And the complexity of the plot and action shouldn't deter readers; Wilson's stop-and-go quality heightens the tension and the reader's interest. If cops could just connect the dots in a simple straight line, there'd be less unsolved crime, and these kinds of novels would be infinitely less satisfying.

Wilson's strength in drawing characters is another reason to admire his work and read his books. Like many heroes of thrillers, Inspector Falcon has a painful past, and in The Vanished Hands Falcon continues his personal quest of moving on from his troubled relationship with his ex-wife, who is now dating, and soon to marry, one of his superiors. As he moves through his investigation, Falcon is constantly assessing that relationship, whose failure is constantly on display to him, given the small town nature of the police department and Seville. Falcon's candid admissions of his past failures with women and his tentativeness in reaching out for a new chance at love give real depth to his character. Even the minor characters are well-drawn: Maddy Krugman, the voluptuous ex-pat American who may not be candid about her past, and Juez Calderon, Falcon's superior and the fiancé of his ex-wife. For readers who have read other Wilson works, Falcon is an interesting extension on Bruce Medway, the hero of Wilson's novels set in Africa, who also has difficulties with women. But the maturing Wilson is now able to write greater depth into Falcon than Medway ever exhibited.

Wilson's writing is also a pleasure; he has a true gift for physical description. By way of illustration, the action in The Vanished Hands takes place in Seville in the summer, when the weather is beastly hot, and Wilson never lets you forget how the physical surroundings affect the characters and their behavior. Wilson's description of heat shimmering from roadways, and the stifled air of spaces devoid of air conditioning is brilliant.

Finally, Wilson does not shy away from interesting ideas: along the way, the characters in The Vanished Hands confront and consider the lasting emotional harms of pedophilia, the nature of parent-child relationships, the pervasive and apparently ineradicable influence of the Russian mafia in 21st century Europe, and America's unwillingness to come clean about its role in Chile in the 1970s. Most novels, let alone most thrillers, don't cover such wide ground. Yet, one of the satisfying things about The Vanished Hands is that these topics don't feel forced into the novel; they are natural outgrowths of the story line.

In Robert Wilson's new book, "The Vanished Hands," Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon, the chief of the Seville homicide squad in Spain, has a particularly nasty case to investigate. A wealthy businessman, Rafael Vega, and his wife, Lucia, are found dead in their luxurious home. At first glance, it looks like a straightforward case of murder/suicide, but Falcon has his doubts.

Rafael Vega worked in construction and he had ties to the Russian mafia. He was suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, and his wife was an emotional wreck. The couple's marriage had been deeply troubled for a long time. Could Vega have killed his wife and then himself? As Falcon's inquiries continue, he learns that Rafael Vega was hiding many ugly secrets that could have ultimately led to his death.

Robert Wilson's textured writing makes "The Vanished Hands" an intriguing and tense psychological thriller. Wilson effectively explores the weaknesses and vulnerabilities that cause people to act in self-destructive ways, harming not only themselves but also those closest to them. This book has an aura of melancholy, since it deals with such weighty themes as child abuse, political torture, and infidelity.

Wilson has a deft way with characterization, and this book has quite a cast. Javier Falcon is a man of tremendous integrity, who is willing to lay his career on the line to see that justice is done. His ex-wife, Ines, is engaged to Juez Esteban Calderon, a duty judge who is also a known womanizer. Falcon's therapist, Alice Aguado, helps to keep Falcon on an even emotional keel and she also assists Javier with other cases that he is pursuing. One of Rafael Vega's neighbors, Consuelo Jimenez, is a well-to-do and beautiful widow to whom Javier is attracted, but he has always been unlucky in love. Finally, Marty and Maddy Krugman are an odd couple who may know more than they are telling about the deaths of Rafael and Lucia Vega. Marty is almost two decades older than his voluptuous wife, who reflexively comes on to almost every man she meets.

"The Vanished Hands" is about coping with psychological pain and trying to find contentment in a flawed world. It has a layered and complex plot, engrossing characters, and profound insights into the workings of the human mind. Wilson is an author who is comfortable with ambiguity, and, unlike lesser writers, he offers no easy answers or pat solutions to all of life's problems.

I read the review by publishers weekly. Whilst i agreee that it helps to have read the previous Wilson book, the plot is NOT too complex. Rather this book is a sophisticated and engaging read, not a Richard North Patterson novel written for USA Today reading simpletons.

Wilson is a great writer who happens to write mystery novels. Yes, the beginning of his newest book is a tad slow, but it is worth the wait. The twists in the story are compelling and the nature of the crimes truly troubling. Readers of this book will not be disappointed.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 18 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars