Murder in the Central Committee (Mask Noir)

Rating:
Summary: Different but dull
Review: As a fan of detective fiction, I am often amused by the sub-genres that develop; gourmet cooks, fly fishermen, lesbians, you name it. So as a student of Spanish and a lover of Spain, I was pleased to discover a modern Spanish private detective. Pepe Carvalho is a hard-boiled loner, a gourmet cook, a former communist and a former CIA spy. He lives in Barcelona. He has many sexual adventures. So far, so good. Unfortunately, there is very little detection in this book. A crime occurs. Carvalho wanders around getting hit on the head. He meets two beautiful women. A past conflict with a police inspector is hinted at. The criminal is revealed in an unconvincing way. Carvalho goes home. I kept waiting for some sluething, but it never happened. The best part of this book was some very slight references to modern Spanish society and some probably accurate references to the history of the Spanish Communist Party. The author is a prize winner, highly regarded and very successful. I'll try him again, but this is not an exciting detective story.

Rating:
Summary: Different but dull
Review: As a fan of detective fiction, I am often amused by the sub-genres that develop; gourmet cooks, fly fishermen, lesbians, you name it. So as a student of Spanish and a lover of Spain, I was pleased to discover a modern Spanish private detective. Pepe Carvalho is a hard-boiled loner, a gourmet cook, a former communist and a former CIA spy. He lives in Barcelona. He has many sexual adventures. So far, so good. Unfortunately, there is very little detection in this book. A crime occurs. Carvalho wanders around getting hit on the head. He meets two beautiful women. A past conflict with a police inspector is hinted at. The criminal is revealed in an unconvincing way. Carvalho goes home. I kept waiting for some sluething, but it never happened. The best part of this book was some very slight references to modern Spanish society and some probably accurate references to the history of the Spanish Communist Party. The author is a prize winner, highly regarded and very successful. I'll try him again, but this is not an exciting detective story.

Rating:
Summary: A Rambling Bore
Review: I love reading detective and crime fiction from other countries, however I have to confess this particular book (the first of Montalban's I've read) left me rather disappointed. The story opens promisingly enough, with the stabbing of a head of the Spanish Communist Party central committee when the lights suddenly go out at a meeting in Madrid. Barcelona-based private eye Pepe Carvalho is hired by the party to identify the murderer, whom it is immediately apparent must be another central committee member.

Pepe is an agreeable enough detective, sort of a hard-boiled type who likes to provoke people (an orphan with no relations, he is responsible for no one but himself) and also happens to be a food lover, former communist, and former CIA employee. The book's major flaw is that Montalban gets sidetracked from the crime and delivers lengthy and excruciatingly boring details of Spanish communist party history and insider intrigues. Part of the problem lies in the book's age-originally written in 1981, only a few years after the communist party was legalized in Spain-much of this detail might have been more interesting twenty years ago. But I also think that unless one has some overwhelming interest in Spanish politics, this detail both incomprehensible and boring.

That's not the only flaw though, another problem is a more basic detecting one. I give nothing away in saying that the murder was planned to occur when all the lights went out, and yet Pepe does nothing to investigate how that might have been coordinated. The solution is given as if the murderer acted alone, however it clearly could not have been the case! In any event, I certainly wasn't inspired to rush out and read more of Pepe's adventures.

Rating:
Summary: great fun!
Review: The book is so engaging one reads it almost breathlessly. The historical context and the diversity of characters makes it lots of fun. I disagree with the previous reviewer that Montalban's discussion of our hero's culinary knowledge and talents detracts from the book -- on the contrary, all discussions of food and wine are fascinating and delicious. Warning: do not read on a empty stomach!