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A review by kynan
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
2.0
I really enjoyed the first third of this book, all of the setting up, the background, the not-quite purple prose (that might be the translator), the characters, the chess, the problem kaleidoscope. I loved the idea of it all and, honestly, I don't REALLY know what went wrong. The interest just sort of evaporated for me when the thriller/mystery section of the book kicked in and it never really pulled me in again.
I really liked the protagonist, Julia and the cross-section of her life that we're introduced into. Meeting her friends Menchu and César and the cast of supporting characters, they started fleshing out as actual characters but then things...got stuck? They end up as 2-dimensional caricatures of the potentially multidimensional characters they could have been.
And then the ending. Sheesh. The cool chess hook never developed its potential and it was relatively obvious who was going to end up being "the villain", but things got really hokey when it came to the denouement.
I DID like the little afterword, it added a nice kink to the tidying up of the plot strands from the final chapter. That said, I'm not sure that I'd recommend anyone read the entire book just to savour the afterword.
I really liked the protagonist, Julia and the cross-section of her life that we're introduced into. Meeting her friends Menchu and César and the cast of supporting characters, they started fleshing out as actual characters but then things...got stuck? They end up as 2-dimensional caricatures of the potentially multidimensional characters they could have been.
And then the ending. Sheesh. The cool chess hook never developed its potential and it was relatively obvious who was going to end up being "the villain", but things got really hokey when it came to the denouement.
I DID like the little afterword, it added a nice kink to the tidying up of the plot strands from the final chapter. That said, I'm not sure that I'd recommend anyone read the entire book just to savour the afterword.