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Amazon.co.uk Review
A brilliantly sketched historical mystery, The Athenian Murders is a marvellous literary conundrum that evokes such other delights as Imberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Arturo Perez-Reverte' s The Dumas Club. The novel revolves around two intertwined riddles and is the first to be translated into English by an award winning Cuban author, now resident in Spain.
In Athens, a pupil of Plato's Academy is found dead and his teacher suspects this was no accident. He asks Heracles, the "Decipherer of Enigmas", to investigate the case and the murky cult that surrounds it. The second plot unfolds in parallel through the footnotes of the translator of the original Greek text and soon leads the reader to suspect the author of the tale has something to hide too. Plot within plot, meaning inside meaning, the story develops in a fascinating manner that will enchant both mystery fans and scholars as reality is shown to be somewhat untrustworthy. This is a delight of intellectual prowess and sheer fun. --Maxim Jakubowski --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A delightfully paranoic read on both ancient and modern planes with enough literary cunning to satisfy fans of Nabokov's PALE FIRE as well as THE NAME OF THE ROSE (INDEPENDENT )
Extremely subtle and intelligent...totally absorbing (EVENING STANDARD )
It works, superbly (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
This is both a riveting historical novel and a subtle, unpretentious investigation of what happens when writers write and readers read. (SUNDAY TIMES )
Extremely subtle and intelligent...totally absorbing (EVENING STANDARD )
It works, superbly (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
This is both a riveting historical novel and a subtle, unpretentious investigation of what happens when writers write and readers read. (SUNDAY TIMES )
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First Sentence
The corpse lay on a fragile birchwood litter. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The corpse lay on a fragile birchwood litter. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buyer beware,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Athenian Murders (Paperback)
Don't buy this book if you're looking for something like Lindsey Davis' Falco mysteries. This isn't a generic detective novel with an unusual setting. It's in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges and will be most enjoyed by readers who enjoy their work. Have a look at the other reviews here and see what you think...If you're in that category, you're in for a treat. Somoza plays intertextual games with the perfunctory murder mystery (our portly Athenian detective is called Heracles Pontor) and pulls off an audacious and entirely unexpected twist at the end. Great, original stuff this, and I look forward to reading more of Somoza's books. If only someone would translate them!
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual and absorbing - I couldn't put it down.,
By
This review is from: The Athenian Murders (Paperback)
I can honestly say I have never read a book like this before. The plot device was extremely unusual, (although I believe it is similar to the one used by Umberto Eco in "The name of the rose"). The murders of the title take place in Ancient Athens at the time of Plato, but the twist is that the story of the murders is actually being translated from Ancient Scrolls by a modern day scholar. His story is told in the form of footnotes throughout the book, and becomes closely entwined with text he is translating.As someone with experience of classics professors and scholars, the translators attitudes towards those who disagreed with his interpretation of events in the text made me laugh out loud. The story of the murders themselves bring Ancient Athens to life. The imagery is fantastic - you can see the philosphers and athletes in the academy, and taste the figs the "decipherer of enigmas" eats. This is the first book Jose Carlos Somoza has written that has been translated into English, and if his others are only half as good then I hope that they too will be translated and published over here.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Audacious,
By
This review is from: The Athenian Murders (Paperback)
I'll not spoil it for you, but somewhere near the end, this book makes some pretty audacious claims about its own conclusions. You can't help but admire the author's self-confidence, and it would be churlish to say that those claims were not - to some degree - merited. Its not an historical novel, a detective story, an unnerving thriller, a philosophical treatise and a vehicle for literary shenanigans juxtaposed together. It's a less uniform cocktail of these elements (and more), which ultimately make an inventive and original slurp. This is probably just as well, as perhaps AgathaChristie-buffs will find the mystery lacking a bit of sophistication, and the literary trickery possibly a little forced (but then I suspect that's the point). Uniqueness (good or bad) is always a reason to read a book, and, if the book also happens to be good, then all the better. For those of you sick of the homogeneous formula books, this is the book for you. I've never read anything quite like it.
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