A Small Death in Lisbon by
Robert Wilson
pbk out May 00
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
Robert Wilson's first four novels were superbly realised thrillers set against the steamy, corrupt background of West Africa. Now he has turned
his attention nearer to home with a gripping and absorbing drama that spans Europe from wartime Berlin to contemporary Lisbon.
Moving effortlessly between past and present, the story begins with the smuggling of Nazi gold in 1941 and the death of a sexually precocious teenager in the present day. Klaus Felsen is drafted into the SS to set up a supply operation from neutral Portugal. It's a move whose repercussions rumble through the intervening years, ripples spreading out like a
poisonous contagion to destroy lives and pervert innocence.
Investigating this tortuous collision of past and present is the engaging Portuguese homicide cop Ze Coelho, a complex and perceptive man struggling
to deal with the death of his wife and his relationship with his own teenage daughter. Robert Wilson is a masterful craftsman, and with this atmospheric page-turner, he should find the wide readership he amply
deserves.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
A Small Death in Lisbon by
Robert Wilson