A review by brughiera
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert C. Wilson

3.0

Wilson blends a detective story with historical fiction exploring a sensitive period of Portugal’s recent past. Both the stories of Detective Zé Coelho’s investigation of a young girl’s murder and of the wolfram smuggling during the war are gripping. It is only towards the end of the book that the links between the two become clear but then the shadows of the past on what appeared to be ‘a small death’ magnify it to the national stage. There are some clever twists which provide a satisfactory if painful ending to the book, but I found there to be rather too many connections and coincidences pouring out in the last few chapters.