thrillers

This book, in my opinion, was extremely well written and thoroughly researched. The author has the incredible ability to describe, in complete detail, the surrounding areas so well, that the reader actually feels like he/she is really there. The author describes the characters' emotions in such a way, that the reader can honestly feel what the character is feeling. I love that in a book! The theme of chess is woven throughout the entire novel and without a love for the game or, at the bare minimum, an understanding of how the game is played, there is a very good chance that this book will leave the reader confused. The characters (especially the "bad guys") base their every move on the position of the chess pieces and the "good guys" have to counteract with a move of their own. With all of that being said, I felt that this was a five star novel up until the last chapter. Although I felt that the ending was slightly far-fetched, it was still a plausible ending. However, I felt that the main character's response to the "solution" of her mystery was weak and unbelievable. There is a twist at the end and, in my opinion, the main character did not respond to that twist in a way that corresponded with her actions throughout the rest of the novel...she suddenly became signifigantly less emotional than she had been up until this point and for me, that was worth the reluctant removal of one star.

The idea is fantastic. A painting has a chess game, reverse solving which leads to the solution of an ancient murder. But the author does not stop there - he wants to strech the plot into modern times instead of leaving well enough alone. The last half of the book was not beleivable - some of the writing and ideas were beautiful but the story lost its reason for being after the initial mystery was solved. But the first half was exactly right! I was involved in the chess moves, found the connection between the chess game, the painting and the characters very real and in general had a great time reading it. The sheer enjoyment of the first 135 or so pages carried me the whole way through, but in retrospect I wish the author waould have stopped sooner - I would have then considered it a masterpeice

Arturo Perez-Reverte's mystery, "The Flanders Panel," takes place in Madrid and was translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. It deals with a mysterious work of art, "The Game of Chess," that was painted by a Flemish artist, Pieter Van Huys, in 1471. Julia, an art expert who has been restoring this painting prior to its being auctioned off, suddenly unearths a message hidden in the painting. The message, "Quis necavit equitem?" is Latin for "Who killed the knight?" It prompts intense speculation as to why the painter first included this message in his painting and later painted over it.

It turns out that the game of chess depicted in the painting provides clues to the meaning of the message, which relates to matters of political intrigue in the fifteenth century. Suddenly, the intrigue reaches into the present when a noted art historian is found dead under mysterious circumstances. It soon becomes apparent that the murderer is an individual with a macabre sense of humor and a thorough knowledge of chess.

I was disappointed in "The Flanders Panel." The characters, including Cesar, who is Julia's surrogate father, Menchu, Julia's best friend and the owner of an art gallery, and Seņor Muņoz, a chess expert, are all rather flat and uninteresting. The book is talky and plodding, the plot is too complicated, and the references to chess are incomprehensible to a non-player. The sole aspect of the book that interested me was the history of the painting and the meaning of the hidden message. It is unfortunate that the rest of the novel lacks enough plausibility, suspense, and excitement to make "The Flanders Panel" an entertaining mystery.