The Flanders Panel

Rating:
Summary: Just a good book
Review: It's seems great when a writer puts together in his book two things that I enjoy so much: chess and a thriller. Thus, "The Flanders panel" seemed irresistible. But once you get to read the book, it's not so much. I mean, I've read better stuff. Okay, the plot is very interesting: suddenly, a murder that took place five centuries ago comes to light again when a pretty woman whose job is to make old paintings look like they were brand new. She discovers a hidden inscription in a flamish painting with na enigmatic question about who would have killed the knight in the portrait. The chess part gets in because the refered knight and another high born noble of the time are playing the game, under the auspicious look of some very looked-for lady. Reaching the answer of who might be the killer, solving a mistery of half a millenium, the painting would double the given price in na auction. To achieve this, the pretty Julia and her gay friend, who in fact is na art-dealer ( my, what a lucky day! ), contact Julia's ex-lover and teatcher Alvaro. The things star to get bad when Alvaro is murdered. Then, to reconstruct the chess game using some kind of retroactive thinking, they call chess-fanatic Muñoz to help them. Along with the continuing murders, they have to deal with the auction house, who is interested in getting the royalties of the painting from Menchu, Julia's friend and owner of na art gallery. Besides, there are the family who in fact are the right owners of the oil. Other characters appear before the reader, such as Menchu's badboy lover, allways looking for easy money and some misterious blonde woman in a yellow overall ( Jesus! ). But of the three main characters, only one is interesting: the chess player Muñoz. It's really nice to watch him become another person completely different when confronted with a chessboard, loosing the boring face he wears through his entire life. Julia is the common pretty face that makes everybody look at her as na object na not a person; and her friend, th! e gay one, is completely out of fashion nowadays. He's that old kind of gay, who hates man unless they're in his bed. The great sequences of the reconstruction of the game, that grip the reader to the book, loose all effect when the end gets closer. Some thirty pages before the gran-finale, you figure out what the disclosure's going to be, but you keep reading and saying " No, that's not possible, let me read further and see if I'm miastaken". Oh, but you're not. The end will be the one you're thinking. Well, Mr. Reverte, you did write a cool book, but c'mon, you could've done better with the ending! Take a look at the motion picture "SEVEN", which has a totally unusual and surprising ending ( and the guilty one doesn't show up untill two-thirds of the story ).

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Execution of a Fascinating Premise
Review: Once again, I find myself terribly disappointed by the lack-luster execution of a very fine idea. The premise of The Flanders Panel - a 500-year-old mystery contained in a painting of a chess game - is terribly exciting, but the author fails to live up to it. The book is poorly written, and one rarely gains much feeling for any of the characters, and indeed begins to yearn for some of them to be killed off just so they can stop their annoying theatrics. As for the mystery, without giving anything away let me just say that the supposed motive for the murders is rediculous and melodratmatic. It really does feel as though the author first selected the person whom he wanted to be the killer in order to provide the necessary stunning climax for his readers and only then cobbled together a motive, sprinkling chauvinistic and homophobic comments willy-nilly as he went along. The only interesting part of the book is the actual chess game. It is only in the passages describing this centuries old battle of wits that the book comes alive, and even someone like me, who's never played a game of chess in her life, was drawn in and excited by the game. Alas, one spends too much of the book waiting for the next move to be made, while the far more mundane occurences in the "real" world build up to a climax which makes no sense whatsoever.

Rating:
Summary: Very gifted Writer
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Introduction to Perez-Reverte
Review: This is the first book I have read by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and while I can certainly understand the criticisms I have read here, I still enjoyed it. Someone described this story as quirky, and I agree.

This is not a very long book, and there is no telling what might have been lost in the English translation, but I felt that the characters had become real enough, and that the story moved along quite well. I would have liked to learn more about the relationship between Julia and Cesar, and I think the story would have benefited if it had been drawn out a littler further, but overall I found it to be an entertaining piece of fiction with undertones that required some thought. If anything, The Flanders Panel makes me want to read more from Perez-Reverte. Judging by some of the reviews I've read on these pages, it seems as if his books will only get better.


Rating:
Summary: Very readable
Review: This is the first book I've read by Perez-Reverte. I found it very readable and enjoyed it. It started of a little slow but picked up nicely.

The character development of the three main characters was handled very well. The main character, Julia, an art restorer in Spain, is restoring a fictional painting depicting a chess game played in the 1500's. While doing so, she discovers a hidden message - Quis Necavit Equitem - Who killed the Knight? Julia is determined to solve a 500 year old mystery of who killed one of the players depicted in the painting.

Her two allies in the search, the wise Cesar and the quirky Munoz , are polar opposites that Perez-Reverte weaves together to form a very good murder mystery. I especially like the character Munoz.

Rating:
Summary: Great mystery, until the ending
Review: This is the second book that I have read from ARTURO PEREZ-REVERTE, and just like the first I was turning pages as quickly as I could read them (The Club Dumas). It's a great story which has the heroine figuring out a mystery from the past. I thought the character development was excellent and it really showed that there are good people and there are bad (even the people you don't suspect, have their own human flaws)in this world (even if they are fictional). I was particularly empressed with the twists and turns all the way up to the ending; which then kind of fizzeled my interest(reason for 4 stars - last chapter). Perhaps I didn't get it but I was completely let down when the final checkmate was discovered and the perptrator was revealed. Overall this book was worth the read and peaked my interest in art as well as in chess. A novice who is interested in the craft of chess should give this book a read.