Book Talk
with Smiffs book & card store, Nerja
The Horseman’s Song (p), by
Ben Pastor, commences in
civil war Spain, July 1937, with
Martin Bora, a 20-something
German officer and detective,
assigned to Franco’s Spanish
Foreign Legion. Bora lives the
tragedy around him as an epic
between idealism and
youthful recklessness. Doubts
about his mission in Spain
arise when he happens on the
body of Federico García
Lorca, a brilliant poet and
progressive. The official
version of Lorca’s death does
not convince Bora, who begins
a perilous investigation.
Historical accounts say Lorca
was executed by a nationalist death squad, but his burial site
remains a mystery despite attempts in recent years to find it.
Pastor’s imagining based on
reality is the sixth in her
Martin Bora series, and the
third to be published so far in
English. She lived in the
United States for 30 years,
working as a university
professor before returning to
Italy to write historical
thrillers.
Wych Elm (l), by Tana French; A Noise Downstairs (p), by
Linwood Barclay; The Overnight Kidnapper (l) and Death At
Sea (p), both by Andrea Camilleri, author of the Inspector
Montalbani novels; Wild Fire (p), one of the Shetland series by
Ann Cleeves; Shadow Killer (p), by Arnaldur Indridason;
Alchemist (p), by Peter James; Walking Shadows (p), by Faye
Kellerman; One Minute Later (l), by Susan Lewis; Broken
Ground (p), by Val McDermid; Begging To Die (l), by Graham
Masterton; Liar, Liar (p), by James Patterson; and, The Flight
Of Cornelia Blackwood (p), by Susan Elliot Wright.
The Freedom Artist (l), by
Nigerian poet and novelist Ben
Okri, is an impassioned plea
for freedom and justice, set in
a world uncomfortably like
our own. In Okri’s most
significant novel since the 1991
Booker Prize-winning The
Famished Road, a young
woman is arrested for
speaking four simple words,
‘Who is the Prisoner?’ After
her disappearance, a man
begins to search for her
because he loves her. We
journey with him as he
searches through a frightening,
disintegrating world of lies,
violence, and fear. At the heart
of this disturbing world lies The Prison. This is a penetrating
examination of how freedom is threatened in a post-truth
society.
The Horseman’s Song leads
off this month’s Soltalk Hotlist
of titles, some entirely new,
others moving into small
paperback format for the first
time or being reissued,
sometimes after years out of
print. All are due for
publication on dates in February, with availability in print this
month or in early March. The Soltalk Hotlist helps readers to
plan and budget for book ordering.
The Melody (p), by Jim Crace,
a never less than interesting
author, centres on Alfred Busi,
famed in his town for his
music and songs, and
mourning the recent death of
his wife. He is quietly living
out his days in the large villa
he has always called home.
Then one night he is attacked
by a creature he disturbs as it
raids the contents of his larder.
Busi is convinced that what
assaulted him was no animal,
but a child, ‘innocent and
wild’. His words fan the flames
of old rumour, of an ancient
race of people living in the
woods surrounding the town. He also ignites a new
controversy: the town’s paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges,
must be dealt with once and for all.
The Wedding Guest (l), by Jonathan Kellerman sees
psychologist Alex Delaware
and detective Milo Sturgis
unravel a shocking crime at a
raucous wedding reception.
Delaware and Sturgis find
themselves crashing a wild
nuptial celebration that has a
‘Saints and Sinners’ theme.
They must separate the
sinners from the saints, the
true from the false, and the
secrets from those keeping
them. The party is over, and
the hunt for whoever killed it
is on.
The Only Story (p), by Julian Barnes, moves into small
paperback. First love has lifelong consequences, but Paul
knows nothing about that at age 19. He is proud of the fact his
relationship flies in the face of social convention. As he grows
older, the demands placed on Paul by love become far greater
than he could possibly have foreseen. Tender and wise, ‘The
Only Story’ is a deeply moving novel by one of the United
Also worth considering in this
month’s thriller lists are: The
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