As Inspector Jefe Javier Falc—n investigates the case of a faceless, mutilated corpse, the beautiful city of Seville is rocked by a massive explosion. The discovery of a mosque in the basement of a devastated apartment building confirms everybody’s fears of terrorism. Panic sweeps the city and the region goes on red alert. As more bodies are dragged from the rubble, the media interest and political pressure intensify and Falc—n suspects that all is not what it appears to be. Just as he comes close to cracking the conspiracy, he makes the most terrifying discovery of all and the race is on to prevent a catastrophe far beyond Spain’s borders. A masterful thriller, The Hidden Assassins is fiction of the highest order.
The Hidden Assassins (Javier Falcón)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Wilson's strong third mystery set in Seville featuring police Insp. Jefe Javier Falcón (after The Vanished Hands and The Blind Man of Seville), the mutilated body of a nude male turns up in a municipal dump. Before Falcon has time to investigate, a huge bomb explodes in a mosque and flattens an apartment complex and a day-care center. Was it an Islamic bomb-making operation gone awry? A specific attack against Muslims? Or the work of separatists fighting to return Andalusia to Muslim rule? Falcón has a dark and tangled personal history that provides several side plots, some of which are incorporated into the terror investigation and some of which are left to be taken up in further installments. Falcón 's investigation is as detailed and meticulous as the writing, which makes for a dense tale that demands close attention, but will reward careful readers with a story that has not only plenty of plot but also in-depth character intrigue. Author tour.(Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
A quiet morning in Seville, Spain, is shattered when an apartment block explodes. There was a mosque in the basement of the apartment building, but in the days following the bombing, police inspector Jefe Javier Falcon investigates an increasingly urgent question: Did the devastation result from the mishandling of explosives by Muslim extremists or from an attack directed against them by Christian Fundamentalists? This talky book never bogs down because the talk remains smart and compelling as Falcon and his confidantes explore what drives people to commit acts of terror. The Moroccan friend he enlists to spy for Spanish intelligence even offers a possible explanation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq that's as logically persuasive as it is counterintuitive. Wilson constructs a richly layered, intricately plotted story that examines the corrosive consequences of all types of terrorism, from the geopolitical to the domestic, on victims and perpetrators. As Falcon puts it, "It happened in the Crusades; why shouldn't it happen now? While some were out there battling for Christendom, others just wanted to kill, pillage and conquer new territory." Indeed. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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More About the Author
ROBERT WILSON is the author of nine previous novels, including A Small Death in Lisbon and The Company of Strangers. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa, and has lived in Greece and West Africa.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Robert Wilson's "The Hidden Assassins" is an intricate novel about the lengths to which extremists will go to achieve their goals. Wilson's recurring hero is Seville-based homicide inspector Javier Falcon, who is called to the scene when a naked corpse is found in a pile of rubbish. The victim had been scalped, his hands had been cut off, and his face was burned with acid to prevent identification.
Falcon is still pining after Consuelo Jimenez, a beautiful woman with whom he had a brief and torrid affair four years earlier. Little does Falcon know that Consuelo is close to an emotional breakdown because she is tormented by demons from her past; she is considering entering therapy with a blind clinical psychologist whom Falcon himself has consulted, Alicia Aguado. Meanwhile, Falcon's ex-wife, Ines, is unhappily married to a philandering and arrogant judge named Esteban Calderon who abuses her.
The main plot centers on a huge explosion that destroys an apartment building and mosque, and damages a nearby preschool. Falcon and his team, along with agents from Spanish intelligence and the antiterrorism squad, work tirelessly to find the perpetrators of this atrocity before they strike again. The public is inclined to believe that the explosion is the work of Islamic extremists, but why would they bomb a mosque? Could the explosion have been accidental? There are many questions to be answered, and it will take superior investigative work to break open this case.
"The Hidden Assassins" is a textured and atmospheric novel in which the author closely examines his characters and their actions, demonstrating that appearances may indeed be deceiving. Falcon discovers the existence of a fanatical Catholic group whose members despise Muslims. Could this right-wing organization have been involved in the bombing? If so, what did they hope to accomplish? Does the disfigured corpse discovered at the beginning of the novel have anything to do with the explosion? Falcon and his colleagues have their hands full interrogating witnesses, tracking down elusive clues, and making sense of a vast and confusing array of facts. More dead bodies pile up before this agonizing case is resolved, and Falcon is not completely at peace with the outcome.
Robert Wilson has written a suspenseful and literate book that examines the breakdown of the fabric of modern society. Spain, where Catholics and Muslims live uneasily side-by-side, is not unique. Resentment and suspicion have infected mixed ethnic and religious communities all over the world. In addition, the author examines his characters' troubled personal lives. There are loving, loyal, and courageous men and women who are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good; however, there are also quite a few individuals who are petty, selfish, cruel, and sadistic. "The Hidden Assassins" refers not just to the terrorists among us, but also to the people we know who kill us a little bit each day with their cutting remarks and vicious betrayals. This intelligent, challenging, and suspenseful novel has a number of thought-provoking and disturbing themes that will resonate with readers for a long time to come.
Falcon is still pining after Consuelo Jimenez, a beautiful woman with whom he had a brief and torrid affair four years earlier. Little does Falcon know that Consuelo is close to an emotional breakdown because she is tormented by demons from her past; she is considering entering therapy with a blind clinical psychologist whom Falcon himself has consulted, Alicia Aguado. Meanwhile, Falcon's ex-wife, Ines, is unhappily married to a philandering and arrogant judge named Esteban Calderon who abuses her.
The main plot centers on a huge explosion that destroys an apartment building and mosque, and damages a nearby preschool. Falcon and his team, along with agents from Spanish intelligence and the antiterrorism squad, work tirelessly to find the perpetrators of this atrocity before they strike again. The public is inclined to believe that the explosion is the work of Islamic extremists, but why would they bomb a mosque? Could the explosion have been accidental? There are many questions to be answered, and it will take superior investigative work to break open this case.
"The Hidden Assassins" is a textured and atmospheric novel in which the author closely examines his characters and their actions, demonstrating that appearances may indeed be deceiving. Falcon discovers the existence of a fanatical Catholic group whose members despise Muslims. Could this right-wing organization have been involved in the bombing? If so, what did they hope to accomplish? Does the disfigured corpse discovered at the beginning of the novel have anything to do with the explosion? Falcon and his colleagues have their hands full interrogating witnesses, tracking down elusive clues, and making sense of a vast and confusing array of facts. More dead bodies pile up before this agonizing case is resolved, and Falcon is not completely at peace with the outcome.
Robert Wilson has written a suspenseful and literate book that examines the breakdown of the fabric of modern society. Spain, where Catholics and Muslims live uneasily side-by-side, is not unique. Resentment and suspicion have infected mixed ethnic and religious communities all over the world. In addition, the author examines his characters' troubled personal lives. There are loving, loyal, and courageous men and women who are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good; however, there are also quite a few individuals who are petty, selfish, cruel, and sadistic. "The Hidden Assassins" refers not just to the terrorists among us, but also to the people we know who kill us a little bit each day with their cutting remarks and vicious betrayals. This intelligent, challenging, and suspenseful novel has a number of thought-provoking and disturbing themes that will resonate with readers for a long time to come.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon returns in one of the most baffling and sophisticated cases of his career when a horribly disfigured body is found in a local dump in Seville, the face burned off with acid, hands surgically removed, making recognition virtually impossible: "The unidentifiable corpse was like a neurosis." Although Falcon goes into action with his usual sense of purpose, the investigation is soon overshadowed by an explosion that demolishes a building in the poor section of town, killing the innocents who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a horror all too familiar since the 2005 Madrid bombings. That the bomb originated in a neighborhood mosque only serves to exacerbate the incipient turf wars of the anti-terrorism agencies, the din of their competition a testament to the new world order.
Falcon retains control of the investigation, at least figuratively, Juez Esteban Calderon assigned to the bombing case as well. Falcon has a history with Calderon, married for four years to the inspector's ex-wife, Inez. Given the pressure of public panic and the threat of terrorist activities, the process is retarded by internal entanglements and agency distrust, while the outraged citizens clamor for protection. The charismatic Calderon skillfully steers the volatile public debate, but his influence is short-lived when personal demons and a previously-hidden murderous temperament surface, Falcon's case fraught with internal complications ("Charisma... an intense form of self-belief. Its closest friend can quite quickly become corruption").
Since we first met the serious, honorable Falcon in The Blind Man of Seville, his job has altered with the passing years, the terrain of police work become a hotbed of self-serving opportunism under the vast umbrella of terrorist conspiracy. Not given to easy platitudes or simplistic explanations of good vs. evil, the Spanish are sensitive to the intricate workings of religious zeal, politics and public policy, the delicate links between a passion for change and the slippery slope of strange bedfellows in aid of a cause. Falcon uncovers a morass of moral uncertainty corrupted by hidden agendas. In the end, the hidden assassins are not the individual perpetrators of terrible events, but the constantly shifting landscape of expediency, fundamental splinter groups, Christian, Muslim and related interests activated by tragedy, opportunists rushing in to take advantage of the chaos and further their own political gains.
Suddenly everything is relative, the waste of innocent lives a collateral issue rather than an outrage. All of this goes against the natural grain of Falcon's psyche, the purity of his intent distorted in a tragedy with the Shakespearean flair of a modern man tormented by the convoluted logic of a terror-obsessed world. A catalyst for more intense questioning than the accepted rhetoric of the last few years, Falcon clings to the integrity that fuels his existence, undiminished by violence, a profoundly moral man in an increasingly immoral environment. Luan Gaines/2006.
Falcon retains control of the investigation, at least figuratively, Juez Esteban Calderon assigned to the bombing case as well. Falcon has a history with Calderon, married for four years to the inspector's ex-wife, Inez. Given the pressure of public panic and the threat of terrorist activities, the process is retarded by internal entanglements and agency distrust, while the outraged citizens clamor for protection. The charismatic Calderon skillfully steers the volatile public debate, but his influence is short-lived when personal demons and a previously-hidden murderous temperament surface, Falcon's case fraught with internal complications ("Charisma... an intense form of self-belief. Its closest friend can quite quickly become corruption").
Since we first met the serious, honorable Falcon in The Blind Man of Seville, his job has altered with the passing years, the terrain of police work become a hotbed of self-serving opportunism under the vast umbrella of terrorist conspiracy. Not given to easy platitudes or simplistic explanations of good vs. evil, the Spanish are sensitive to the intricate workings of religious zeal, politics and public policy, the delicate links between a passion for change and the slippery slope of strange bedfellows in aid of a cause. Falcon uncovers a morass of moral uncertainty corrupted by hidden agendas. In the end, the hidden assassins are not the individual perpetrators of terrible events, but the constantly shifting landscape of expediency, fundamental splinter groups, Christian, Muslim and related interests activated by tragedy, opportunists rushing in to take advantage of the chaos and further their own political gains.
Suddenly everything is relative, the waste of innocent lives a collateral issue rather than an outrage. All of this goes against the natural grain of Falcon's psyche, the purity of his intent distorted in a tragedy with the Shakespearean flair of a modern man tormented by the convoluted logic of a terror-obsessed world. A catalyst for more intense questioning than the accepted rhetoric of the last few years, Falcon clings to the integrity that fuels his existence, undiminished by violence, a profoundly moral man in an increasingly immoral environment. Luan Gaines/2006.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"The Hidden Assassins" is the 9/11 novel that's not about 9/11. The bomb blast that takes down a building in a Spanish city is an atrocity is on a smaller scale than the World Trade Center attack, but the aftermath covers the same routes that the survivors travel, and reflects the trauma a nation goes through at the hands of terrorists.
The book doesn't begin with the blast, but with the discovery of a man's corpse, sans hands and facial features, in a Seville landfill. The investigating detective, Jefe Javier Falcon, barely gets the investigation rolling when sounds of the explosion roll through the city.
But the book is not a direct recreation of 9/11. The presence of a mosque in the basement of the building raises important questions. Was the blast a bombmaker's error? Or was it revenge? There are several groups in play: intelligence services that may have been investigating the mosque, a political party from the Andalucia region that sees its popularity growing, a major multinational with a mysterious agenda. Anything is possible.
While the explosion doesn't affect everyone, there are those whose lives fly apart as if it had. Much of the tension in "Assassins" comes from watching them try to hold the center. Who will collapse? Falcon's ex-wife, who learns of her husband's affair? The husband whose family was pancaked in the building? Or Falcon's Arab friend who's asked to spy for him?
Wilson's story rarely does what's expected, keeping us off-balance throughout, and implying that life can be as combustible as a hundred pounds of semtex. I gave myself only two weeks to read the book, and I wished, at the end, that I had more. It's that good.
The book doesn't begin with the blast, but with the discovery of a man's corpse, sans hands and facial features, in a Seville landfill. The investigating detective, Jefe Javier Falcon, barely gets the investigation rolling when sounds of the explosion roll through the city.
But the book is not a direct recreation of 9/11. The presence of a mosque in the basement of the building raises important questions. Was the blast a bombmaker's error? Or was it revenge? There are several groups in play: intelligence services that may have been investigating the mosque, a political party from the Andalucia region that sees its popularity growing, a major multinational with a mysterious agenda. Anything is possible.
While the explosion doesn't affect everyone, there are those whose lives fly apart as if it had. Much of the tension in "Assassins" comes from watching them try to hold the center. Who will collapse? Falcon's ex-wife, who learns of her husband's affair? The husband whose family was pancaked in the building? Or Falcon's Arab friend who's asked to spy for him?
Wilson's story rarely does what's expected, keeping us off-balance throughout, and implying that life can be as combustible as a hundred pounds of semtex. I gave myself only two weeks to read the book, and I wished, at the end, that I had more. It's that good.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
NOT QUITE "SMALL DEATH IN LISBON"
A GOOD BOOK BUT NOT AS INTERESTING AS HIS EARLIER BOOKS. I THINK HE SHOULD GO BACK AND WRITE THE WEST AFRICA SCENE AGAIN AS MUCH HAS CHANGED.
Published 2 months ago by Richard Roth
Missing and repeated pages
My paperback version pages go 1-24, 73-104, 57 to I think the end of the book. So I agree with some of the reviewers that the book repeats :) but I'm hoping to find a complete... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Another Bob
Feast of Famine Author
After reading 3 of 4 books by Wilson with solid positive impressions overall, this one started so badly I almost junked it within the first 50 pages and finally did. Read more
Published 9 months ago by ReadsALot
Terrific book
Robert Wilson is one of the most creative and original mystery writers of our days.
He lived in different places and his novels set in Africa, Portugal and finaly Spain... Read more
He lived in different places and his novels set in Africa, Portugal and finaly Spain... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Srdjan Pesic
Excellent read
Robert Wilson's Javier Falcon series is really quite good. This is not a formula book like most of the "best sellers", but has complex characterizations of each person and the... Read more
Published on April 13, 2010 by M. Eckroat
Terrorist Bombs and the Price of Real Estate in Seville
It's been said that 99% of detective work is mind-numbing tedium. If true, I'll admit that by the middle of Robert Wilson's "The Hidden Assassins" I was wondering if sorting... Read more
Published on August 31, 2009 by Gary Griffiths
A mystery thriller which embodies real life complexity
I haven't read the first Javier Falcon book yet, but the three I have read are all winners. This particular one preshadows THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD and a windup to the story of the... Read more
Published on July 25, 2009 by Neal C. Reynolds
Padded out
It's refreshing to see a thriller where people do things for ideological reasons, instead of the usual '25 tons of metric gold' stuff. Read more
Published on July 20, 2009 by Mick
A 6 star book
The Hidden Assassins takes the Javier Falcon quartet of novels onto a whole new energy level. Themes hinted at in the second novel, The Vanished Hands, burst into full flower in... Read more
Published on June 23, 2009 by Jeff
Very Good Book But Too Much Going On
When it comes to sheer writing, sheer plot inventiveness, sheer realism, it's hard to beat Robert Wilson. Read more
Published on March 10, 2008 by zorba
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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mobile vibrated, council inspectors, ioo kilos, antiterrorist squad, fireproof box, forensic information, homicide squad, biology faculty Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tateb Hassani, Inspector Jefe, Fuerza Andalucia, Angel Zarrías, Ricardo Gamero, Jesús Alarcón, Peugeot Partner, Miguel Botín, Comisario Elvira, Lucrecio Arenas, Médico Forense, Calle Los Romeros, Agustin Cárdenas, Eduardo Rivero, César Benito, Alicia Aguado, Banco Omni, Esteban Calderón, Juez Calderón, Yacoub Diouri, Guardia Civil, José Luis, Cristina Ferrera, Juez del Rey, Trabelsi Amar New!
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mobile vibrated, council inspectors, ioo kilos, antiterrorist squad, fireproof box, forensic information, homicide squad, biology faculty Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tateb Hassani, Inspector Jefe, Fuerza Andalucia, Angel Zarrías, Ricardo Gamero, Jesús Alarcón, Peugeot Partner, Miguel Botín, Comisario Elvira, Lucrecio Arenas, Médico Forense, Calle Los Romeros, Agustin Cárdenas, Eduardo Rivero, César Benito, Alicia Aguado, Banco Omni, Esteban Calderón, Juez Calderón, Yacoub Diouri, Guardia Civil, José Luis, Cristina Ferrera, Juez del Rey, Trabelsi Amar New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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This book cites 1
book:
- The Big Killing (Bruce Medway Mysteries, No. 2) by Robert Wilson in Front Matter
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