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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highly intelligent and realistically hardboiled,
By A Customer
This review is from: Murder in the Central Committee (A Mask Noir Title) (Paperback)
I was surprised how uncompromising Montalban was about taking us through party politics in post-Franco Spain -- which turned out to be much more interesting than I might have anticipated. There is enough violence to keep one concerned, several fleshed-out characters, a sense of reality throughout. If I have a quibble it's that the reader is subjected to rather too much about what a gourmet the hero-detective is. Otherwise, it was smartly done and I'll read Montalban again.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great fun!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Murder in the Central Committee (A Mask Noir Title) (Paperback)
The book is so engaging one reads it almost breathlessly. The historical context and the diversity of characters makes it lots of fun. I disagree with the previous reviewer that Montalban's discussion of our hero's culinary knowledge and talents detracts from the book -- on the contrary, all discussions of food and wine are fascinating and delicious. Warning: do not read on a empty stomach!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult to read.,
By frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER)
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This review is from: Murder in the Central Committee (A Mask Noir Title) (Paperback)
We chose this book for our book club selection in August. The reaction was unusual for us in that quite a few people gave up reading without finishing. There were general complaints that the book was overly complicated, difficult to read, and that you needed an encyclopedia to follow all the historical references.I personally had the impression that reading the book was like having a mystery genre dream. You know that it is a mystery because there is a corpse and detective. But, on the other hand, it never becomes clear who the bad guys actually are. People come and go with odd items (musical instruments, for instance) and nobody really seems very interested in solving the mystery itself. I also had the feeling that I was missing quite a bit because the point of the book seems to be as much investigating the state of post-Franco Communist politics as it is a genre read. This is not bad, but since my knowledge is rather limited in that area, a great deal of the book went winging over my head. I am curious as to whether someone more familiar with the ins and outs of Spanish politics would have found it a more engaging reading experience. Part of what made the book so difficult to read was very likely the translation. I do not know if it was intended to faithfully capture the original in this sense, but it seemed as though Patrick Camiller went out of his way to find the most obscure words possible for use in the edition. The book was also sadly full of typing and editorial errors that should have been caught before publication. There were enough moments in Murder in the Central Committee for me to get a feeling why Montalban has such an excellent reputation as a writer. I particularly admired the way that he drew characters. I liked Pepe and his quirks, and got more than a few chuckles out of his food obsessions and his habit of burning books instead of logs. I will probably give another one of his books a try to see if I am able to get more out of it as a reader.
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