From Publishers Weekly
A ghost narrates Reig's whimsical speculative novel, set in the same alternative Madrid as
Blood on the Saddle (2006). After a thug fires a bullet into the head of 35-year-old María Dolores Eguíbar Madrazo, a children's book author who writes under the name Lola Lios, her ghost seeks to find out why she was murdered. Might there be some connection with her ex-husband, Fernando Eguilaz, a famous scientist who's been hard at work synthesising neuroprotein K666 (discovered by Lola's psychiatrist father) as a potential cure for death? Lola's most popular fictional character, Benito Viruta, provides solace as she muses on what was, what might have been and what is. To really live you have to learn to die, she concludes. Reig conjures an extraordinary ending that's as elusive as a butterfly's kiss.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of the cult favorite Blood on the Saddle (2006) returns with another offbeat, quirky novel set in a sort of alternate-reality version of Spain in which the country is now part of the U.S. It begins with the murder of the story’s narrator, Maria Dolores Esquibar, a popular author of children’s novels. Understandably, Maria Dolores would very much like to find out who killed her. Because her killers made her turn over some documents before they shot her, she suspects her murder had something to do with the neuroprotein K666, an experimental serum that could reverse the course of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, not to mention stop death itself in its tracks. But does this mean her ex-husband, the developer of K666, could be behind her murder? And can an eccentric private eye named Carlos Clot, who likes his whiskey a little too much, get to the bottom of things? Part mystery, part science fiction, part fantasy, the novel is wholly original—and completely entertaining. It may remind some readers of the works of Richard Matheson. --David Pitt
