The Flanders Panel

Rating:
Summary: Neat premise - the chess puzzle's solution is incorrect
Review: Great concept - poor followthrough. But most importantly: the author got the chess problem (which the book centers around) WRONG! The board position shown could only be legally reached if the bishop's pawn (on A5) had taken the knight. It is a simple matter of transportation and pawn movement. The retrograde analysis given in the book is flawed. Kinda disappointing...

Rating:
Summary: A dismal, pretentious waste.
Review: "I have read The Name of the Rose. The Name of the Rose is one of my personal favorites. This book, sir, is no Name of the Rose." I have to say, I have not been so exasperated by a novel in a long time. All the characters were dislikable, and, frankly, I don't think I needed to know the creator of each of the protagonist's items of clothing. It had the same snobbish name dropping as American Psycho, only without the irony. I feel sorry for anyone who thinks of this as an Art History 101. They would be much better served by a good copy of Janson's. I cannot comment about the chess level, but it certainly was not as interesting a hook as I was lead to believe. The "philosophy" conversations were distressing; I hate figuring out what book the author had just read while in the middle of a monologue by one of the characters. I am currently using this book to hold down the lid of my cat little container; I think Sr. Eco will not have his sleep disturbed by any fears of competition from this corner.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!!
Review: All I want to say is brilliant, I really love this book

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining novel, but cliched characters
Review: This is an enjoyable murder mystery. I don't think the author is an expert on art or chess as his descriptions of both seem simplistic. Munoz would have solved the initial problem in twenty minutes - not two days. If Julia was really an art expert she would have noticed certain things in the painting much earlier. The gay caricature (Cesar) will probably offend many readers - I think the author has watched too many Noel Coward films! Munoz is a non-player's stereotypyical view of a one dimensional chess maestro. The ending is reminiscent of an episose of Scooby Doo - the amateur sleuths unmasking the improbable villain who proceeds to confess all. Despite these faults the author succeeds in sustaining a tense, fascinating story for most of its 295 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, literary mystery
Review: I found this novel fascinating. You are kept guessing until the last page, and the interweaving of art, chess, and mystery makes for a compelling novel indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Good beach reading, but does not compare to Eco.
Review: An interesting premise, and a delightful way to spend a weekend at the beach. The translation is sometimes stilted and unidiomatic. Any comparisons with Eco's The Name of the Rose are overly ambitious.

Rating:
Summary: absolutely absorbing !
Review: First off, let me say I'm not a chess aficionado. But I don't think that one need be to enjoy this book.Initially I thought it was heading towards a typical "damsel in distress" scenario (albeit with a latin tilt).The beautiful,talented and fiercely independant Julia, with the fabulous career,jet- set social circle,etc.I thought for certain this was going to be pseudo-intellectual pulp! Well,I was wrong.Once I got reading I was enthralled,the layers of the story held me. I loved it! Don't be put off by the supposedly "high brow" content.Just Read it!.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginning, poor follow-through
Review: It's a fascinating premise and I loved the beginning of the novel, but unfortunately the rest of the book didn't live up to the first couple of chapters. In addition, there are a number of comments made about the psychology of homosexuality that are dubious at best and offensive at worst.

Rating:
Summary: Looking closer at the chess puzzle ...
Review: Other reviewers of The Flanders Panel have given an excellent summary of the sometimes frustrating nature of this intersting work, which can be summarised as "very clever ideas, only partially realized". For a novel that blends chess and mystery so strongly it is disappointing to find that the central chess premise is in fact wrong. From the unusual pawn position it is possible to determine that the white knight was taken by the black pawn on a5.

Rating:
Summary: Art, chess, and murder make for a clever Spanish mystery
Review: A wonderful book with several charms. The story of the painting is interesting, a primer on art history that makes the subject intriguing. The chess game at the heart of the novel is also a lot of fun. I rediscovered chess lately, so I paid close attention to the chess moves the characters make throughout the story. There are chessboard illustrations for each of the game's moves, quite unusual for a novel. The Spanish setting is a delightfully fresh--why aren't more mysteries set there? I look forward to reading other Perez-Reverte books set in Spain. True, the ending of the book spirals into silliness and nasty homosexual stereotypes, but overall it's a remarkable debut. I'd like to see the characters Julia and Munoz return for a sequel.