Customer Reviews

The Ignorance of Blood (Inspector Falcon)

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4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The final novel of the Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon series begins with a spectacular car crash, resulting in a coup for law enforcement: one dead Russian gangster, a trunk full of cash and computer disks with explosive images. Absorbed by an ongoing investigation into a terrorist bombing three months ago in Seville, Falcon appreciates the ramifications of the material on the disks. Organized crime has escalated since the arrival of the Russian mafia, a level of brutality never before seen in this city, where the new enforcers inject themselves into every faction, prostitution, drugs, human trafficking. This accident may finally provide the critical, if obscure link to the terrorist bombing, only one ingredient in an elaborate operation.

With each successive Falcon novel, Wilson's has protagonist confronts shifting circumstances, the death of his ex-wife at the hands of her husband, the terrorist bombing, the street-fighting tactics of the Russian mob. The senseless bombing has outraged Falcon, strengthened his resolve. Without doubt, the Russian domination of organized crime in Seville has contributed to the expansion of Falcon's investigation, the escalating violence in his city reflecting a world seething with geopolitical conflicts fueled by abundant drug money and the making of strange bedfellows. As is his habit, Falcon ruminates, shuffles facts and insights, ever alert to connections. What he discovers through the car accident is a tenuous thread between two worlds, a confluence of agendas from the unpredictable and deadly landscape of organized crime to the bloody scenes of brutal murders, a pervasive corruption of the judicial system and the perpetrators of the bombing that shattered Seville's innocence.

From A Small Death in Lisbon and The Company of Strangers to the Falcon series, Wilson adapts his novels to the changing face of criminal enterprise, a world beset by terrorism and the deterioration of society. Once begun, this novel accelerates, explosive, riddled with outrageous acts and the corruption of elected officials. A confrontation with a judge in the June bombing, the Russian mob's internal conflict, a meeting with an old friend who shares terrible secrets and Javier painstakingly assembles a picture that will provide the answers he seeks, but bring him to his knees in grief. Even the love he has finally embraced is filled with barbs. A policeman to his core, Wilson's Javier Falcon is a man who faces an abyss, heart-breaking choices and a great personal reckoning. Wilson doesn't settle for a dynamic plot with nail-biting action; he delves into the deepest territory of Falcon's psyche, where truth and pain reside in equal measure, where each thing worth having carries a terrible price, where Seville is forever scarred by the imprint of terrorism. Luan Gaines/2009.

In Robert Wilson's "The Ignorance of Blood," Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón, chief of homicide in Seville, makes his final appearance. The book opens in a sweltering September in 2006, at a time when Falcón is caught up in a multi-faceted investigation involving prostitution, drugs, blackmail, kidnapping, espionage, political corruption, and terrorism. Javier is beginning to suspect that his old nemesis, disgraced judge Esteban Calderón, who is in prison for the murder of Falcón's ex-wife Inés, may have actually been a pawn in a deadly conspiracy. Nor has Javier forgotten the June 6th Seville bombing that destroyed an apartment building, a mosque, and a nearby preschool. He and his team are still hunting for the men who planted the explosive device that wreaked so much havoc.

This is a carefully constructed and intricate story with a large cast consisting of brutal assassins (the Russian mafia seems to pop up in every thriller these days), terrified witnesses, a close friend of Javier who is in deep trouble, and the lovely Consuelo Jiménez, the long-suffering woman whom Javier adores. When Falcón begins to ask too many pointed questions, he is warned that he will pay a high price for his inquisitiveness. Sadly, his passion for justice may end up destroying both his career and his relationship with Consuelo.

Wilson is a meticulous stylist whose vivid prose keeps us hooked even as we struggle to keep track of the incredibly convoluted plot. Falcón is a highly intelligent and charismatic leader whose determination, investigative skills, and composure earn his colleagues' respect (although his boss seems to be immune to his charms). Javier can be tough and aggressive, but he is also loyal, fair, and passionate about dispensing justice. "The Ignorance of Blood" contains disturbing scenes of sadistic brutality and bloodshed. However, it is worth reading for its indelible portrait of an exceptional individual who, in spite of the heartache and grief that he has experienced, has become neither cynical nor jaded. If anything, Javier still cares about doing the right thing, even at great personal cost. Admirers of Inspector Falcón will not want to miss the last installment of this timely and intriguing series.

As the last of a quartet of police procedurals, Ignorance of Blood ties up a lot of story lines and loose ends, not the least of which is Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon's own story. Not having read the first three Falcon novels, I gather that the relationship between Falcon and his ex-wife Ines, her subsequent murder for which her current husband, a prominent judge was tried and convicted, provided much plot material for the first three books, as does Falcon's complex history and relationship with his friend Yacoub Diouri. I think that reading those three books first would add immensely to enjoyment of this one, but I found this one compelling reading even without the backstories.

Falcon's developing romance with the restauranteur Consuelo, and the kidnapping of her son, apparently related to the murders of two Russian bad guys, provides much of the meat of this book. Dario's kidnapping also proves to have links to Yacoub Diouri, who's been acting a little odd lately, and everything seems to be related to the Seville bombing of 2004. The threads of this ambitious story stretch wide; municipal corruption, the Russian mob and the Saudi royal family. After much suspense, oceans of blood and plenty of surprises, all is neatly wrapped up in a way that miraculously never seemed contrived.

Mr. Wilson's novel is filled with tormented characters acting out their dramas against backdrops ranging from enchanting Seville, to Madrid, to London and finally to exotic Morocco. Emotionally much deeper than a run of the mill thriller, all the characters are damaged and Mr. Wilson does not shy away from delving into the cause and effect of this damage. What saves it from grimness are the charming and passionate characters who still manage to express humor, joy and hope despite the swathes of blood and gore festooning the pages of this book. This is that unusual bird--a guy type thriller that will appeal to women.

It's very hard to think of a quartet of books in any genre as well crafted with complex, interlining plots than Robert Wilson's Javier Falcon novels, set in Seville. I called the third book in the series, The Hidden Assassins a 6 star book and I'd give the same accolade to Ignorance of Blood if Amazon allowed it.

Over the course of the quartet, Wilson has given us dozens of complex characters, richly drawn. He has also given us a plot that snakes back and forth in time, albeit told linearly. It's rare to see an author pull off plotting of this magnitude of complexity or give us so many well crafted character. That he has done both really well is quite remarkable.

I've commented in my other reviews about how well Wilson describes his locales. Most of the first three books take place in or near Seville. In IOB, significant parts of the plot occur in Morocco and he helps us see that beautiful country as well as he has Seville. In addition, he does a tremendous job of providing some insight from the Arabic point of view about terror and how the West is viewed by that important part of the world.

Wilson clearly had an opportunity to extend the Falcon series and make a lot of money doing so. His prior novel sold well and have been reviewed well, generally. As sad as I am about never getting into the mind of Javier Falcon again in a new book, I think Wilson did the right thing to end the series where he did. Morover, he has managed to take plot elements from all the proceeding books, and cast many of them in a final, new light that I found quite satisfying.

If you're new to Robert Wilson, you have my envy. Reading the 4 books of this series for the first time has been a real highlight for me. If you've finished this quartet and haven't read A Small Death in Lisbon, you ahve another great treat in front of you.

Javier Falcon has pledged -- publicly -- that he will bring to justice anyone he can link to the terrorist bombing that rocked Seville three months ago. And that's just one of the interwoven investigations that Falcon must deal with in this, the fourth and final volume of mysteries featuring Falcon and -- just as importantly -- the city of Seville.

Falcon's Seville is not the one the tourists see, with the Alcazar, the cathedral and the flamenco performances. The Inspector Jefe's world is one dominated by newcomers to Andalucia, from Moroccan immigrants (some of whom will drift into the ranks of extremist jihadists) to Russian mafiosi. So seamy is this underworld, so closely does it touch Falcon's personal life, that it's becoming hard for him to retain his perspective on his job, or even his sanity.

The grisly death of one of these Russians in a bizarre car accident ignites a chain of events that in turn lead Falcon to a series of truths and of unexpected revelations into not only that death and the bombing but to a complex series of other interrelated investigations. Even after reading the three other books in this series as they appeared, I still found that I had to dip back into one or two of them to remind myself of key characters and plot twists, to get the most out of this final volume. While it could be read as a stand-alone book, I'd strong urge anyone to read it in sequence, as the conclusion to an excellent series of thrillers.

One of Wilson's strongest points -- above and beyond the fact that he can write a good suspenseful novel that never flags or disappoints -- is his command of his setting. My favorite of his novels remains the first I read, A Small Death in Lisbon, set in the ostensibly neutral Portuguese capital during World War II, where the city itself is as much as a character as Wilson's noir-ish hero. In the Falcon series, Wilson has moved the setting to the current day, showing just as much flair for incorporating all kinds of tensions and drama within today's Spanish society, but both the noir element and sense of place remain among the strongest features. As is the case with any good 'noir' narrative, Falcon and his city are both scarred by what they have experienced and witnessed.

Fans of writers like Alan Furst and Philip Kerr will relish Falcon's battles and trials, even though he is writing about contemporary events while they have set their best work in the 1930s. But I'd caution against picking up this fourth novel in the series and starting here; you're likely to spend enough time wondering about the 'backstory' that it will break your attention and make it difficult for you to immerse yourself in this novel the way it deserves. Start at the beginning; there is a lot of great writing and fabulous characterization to savor. And you'll never look at Seville the same way again.

As a fan of Mr Wilson's I must, alas, confess my disappointment with this outing of Inspector Jefe Falcon. Russian mobsters (with the requisite gory details of their behaviour), Islamic terrorists, a kidnapped child. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into the plot. As always Wilson's descriptions of Spain are excellent but when he tries to write from the viewpoint of a beautiful restarateur who is Falcon's lover the writing becomes overwrought; while the plot becomes so bizarre that the reader loses interest. For myself I still feel that Wilson's best books were his earliest ones, set in West Africa and featuring as a protagonist a footloose British expatriate who I suspect, bears a close similarity to the author (who lived in West Africa for several years after leaving University.

According to author Robert Wilson, this is the final Javier Falcón novel. The series has been a good one. If you like the novels of John Le Carre, you'll probably like these books, too. This one in particular moves more quickly than a Le Carre book -- and is more explicitly violent. But the realism and sympathetic characterization is there, if not the same feeling of moral weight. In all, a very good read.

"Few writers - of any genre - can match Wilson's depth of character and plot or his evocation of place and history." That is the blurb on the cover of The Ignorance of Blood, and certainly applies to A small Death in Lisbon, The Company of Strangers, and The Blind Man of Seville. However, I would not say that it applies to The Ignorance of Blood as there is no evocation of history, and not the same evocation of place as in the other Javier Falcon novels.

On the back of the book Harlan Coben supplies a flattering quote which is appropriate, as this novel is more like Harlan Coben novel than Robert Wilson's other books.

The depiction of Consuelo is more than a bit much - she is way over the top. So sexy in her pink mini-dress, so shrewd in her business dealings, while still having the time and energy to play the indefatigably loving mother. Of course, she looks after her young like a lioness. Like a jealous friend, I wish Javier had never met her. Maybe it is just as well that this is the last Javier Falcon book - the introspective and unhappy Javier I knew and liked has changed.

I hope the writer will write another novel that weaves in history as well as he did in A small Death in Lisbon, The Company of Strangers, and The Blind Man of Seville.

Robert Wilson's "Javier Falcon" mysteries all make for good reads. The description of Seville, the intrigue, the graphic description of crime scenes, and the excellent characterizations (especially of Falcon) make each of the four books in this series very much worth reading. "The Ignorance of Blood" is no exception and in many respects surpasses all the other books in the series, with the possible exception of "The Blind Man of Seville". I certainly found it more entertaining and faster-paced then its immediate predecessor ("The Hidden Assassins"). Unlike the other books in the series, however, I do believe the reader should be familiar with the previous Falcon novels before tackling this one. There are far too many references to previous events--events covered in each of the earlier books--and I believe it will be confusing and less rewarding to jump into this book prior to reading the other three.

"The Ignorance of Blood" essentially wraps up the mystery terrorist bombing from "The Hidden Assassins" and brings several of Javier's relationships to a close. Multiple characters from previous novels appear in this novel and Wilson does a pretty good job of wrapping up unsettled issues with each of them. This novel is essentially a tale of Russian mobsters, a kidnapping, a major financial/real estate conspiracy, and the continued evolution of Falcon as a detective. Whether there is another Falcon novel is anybody's guess--the author himself states that "This is the last book in the Javier Falcon Seville quartet" in the Acknowledgments section. No matter, it is a terrific read and essential reading for fans of the series.

The Ignorance of Blood is Robert Wilson's fourth and supposed final book in the series featuring Javier Falcon, Spanish Homicide detective in Seville.

A freak accident starts off the action and sets the stage for a bizarre chain of events that fill the book with so many complicated plots as to be nearly incomprehensible at times. A cast of Russian mafia types mix it up with Islamic assassins, and with a Spanish governmental spy who is a closeted homosexual having an affair with a member of Saudi Royalty. This is Yacoub Diouri, Falcon's closest friend who assists him in solving the kidnapping of Falcon's lover's youngest son. Are you following me? It's no surprise that many killings ensue, so creatively gory and gruesome as to turn the stomach of those who aren't toughened up by the description of the opening scenes of the accident. All of this is handled with Robert Wilson's usual deft touch that allows his fond readership to finish the book and wish for more.

--C&B Blanchard