3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gastronomic Crime Fiction in Barcelona, June 27, 2009
This book is set in Barcelona, where the detective Pepe Carvalho plies his trade, freshly back from a stint in Buenos Aires. The book is more a rumination on the politics of Region Plus and Catalan nationalism and various groups for and against the -isms that plague Spain (including, of course, Catholicism and Satanism), than a detective novel. Much energy is expended in describing why an economic union of Barcelona, Toulouse and Milan is inimical to the idea of Catalonia (if people can make money in the new regime, why will they bother to agitate for separation from Spain?), and why devil-worship is the new religion to counter Catholicism (which has been tarnished by its association with the depredations of Franco's era). Indeed, Carvalho does little detecting, although by what looks like authorial fiat, he locates one crazy group of anarchists and another, and deduces links among them that perplexed an unsubtle mind like mine. In the midst of all this, he also gorges himself on some of Barcelona's famed cuisine and on Barcelona's lovely women as well. How a somewhat weary and downbeat sixty-year old gets all those women, I have no idea. Still, they like him, and he proceeds to confound the various politicos with his smart-alecky humour, before settling the case with his own idea of justice.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
intriguing Spanish investigator tale, February 5, 2010
This review is from: The Man of My Life: A Pepe Carvalho Mystery (Pepe Carvalho Mysteries) (Paperback)
Having spent some time in Buenos Aires (see THE BUENOS AIRES QUINTET), investigator Pepe Carvalho has returned home to Barcelona. However, he has no time to adjust to the time zone change as he has women to dine and a murder investigation to conduct. Someone killed Lazaro Conasal, son of an influential financier. Lazaro's mother informs Pepe that her late son and she agreed that Hannibal with his muzzle in the Silence of the Lambs is her husband and his father.
The case takes a strange spin into the growing Satanist cults as Catholicism has increasingly become disfavored with the exposures of wrongdoing, especially depravity, by the Church during the Franco Era. He also finds ties to anarchists who want Catalonia to separate from Spain. With pressure to resolve the case preferably with a lowlife discard of no regard, Pepe ignores the noise and in between dining with a multitude of women, he continues his inquiry.
This Spanish investigator tale is not an easy read as the social elements of separatism and religion as well as the lampooning of the aging lothario cop at times overwhelms the sleuthing. Pepe is a refreshing tour guide of where to dine in Barcelona and must have one heck of a supply of Viagra. The profound look at the failures of Catholicism in Spain is gripping and when combined with the anarchism subplot together they supersede the whodunit. Still fans who prefer something different will want to read Pepe Carvalho's return home.
Harriet Klausner
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Montalban's last adventure with Pepe Carvalho, January 14, 2012
This review is from: The Man of My Life: A Pepe Carvalho Mystery (Pepe Carvalho Mysteries) (Paperback)
Reading this book turned out to be a chore, and I am amazed I finished it. But, since this is the last book in the Pepe Carvalho series, I had to find out what happens to Pepe, private detective, gourmet, and sensualist living and operating in his beloved city of Barcelona.
First a bit about the series before I comment on this book. This series evolves from typical mystery fare with forays into politics and philosophy to full blown treatises on multinationalism, religion, European minority states, and philosophies of varying kinds, with the mystery seeming to be the vehicle for these topics. The climax of Montalban's philosophizing is reached in "The Man of my Life," and frankly, the intellectualizing and theorizing, much of it particular to Spanish history and politics, is more than most of us mystery readers need.
Now, about this installment. Pepe is almost 60 years old. He has been through many adventures all over the world. He starts thinking gloomily about old age and what he is going to live on. He feels responsible for Charo, his quasi girlfriend of long standing, and Biscuter, an odd former felon he has helped stay clean by letting him live in his office and cook gourmet meals for him there. Out of the blue he starts receiving faxes from an unidentified woman from his past who seems to be obsessed with him. At the same time, Charo gets him involved with an important man in the Catalonian (Barcelona area of Spain) autonomous government who wants Pepe to help form a secret intelligence group to protect its interests, and an archbishop of the Catholic Church asks him to look into the killing of a young man, member of a Satanist group, on behalf of his very Catholic mother.
As Pepe works out the many complications of these cases, he is caught up in the machinations of powerful "oligarchies" who are after power and money, political groups, sects that want to replace the Catholic Church, Bosnian hitmen, and an infiltrator to one of the sects who causes great harm. Pepe is very confused by all that is going on, and his confusion is increased on a personal level as he becomes obsessed with the woman who is faxing him. Pepe cannot deny himself the relationship with the much younger woman from his past, even though he knows there is no future in it, and the results are tragic.
Woven through the plots are dialogues and Pepe's thoughts on good and evil, the Catholic church and sects, economics, and politics. This is where the book becomes almost unreadable at times. Also, the faxes from Pepe's admirer are long and far too philosophical and clever (sort of) to be enjoyable reading.
It is hard to see Pepe aging and discouraged. He still cooks and eats marvelous food. He still is an anti-intellectual intellectual burning books in his fireplace. But the reader can feel from the beginning that Pepe is coming to grips with being old in this world.
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