Product Description

This stunning, atmospheric thriller set in war-torn Europe won the CWA Gold Dagger and has now been reissued with the Javier Falcon series. A Portuguese bank is founded on the back of Nazi wartime deals. Over half a century later a young girl is murdered in Lisbon. 1941. Klaus Felsen, SS, arrives in Lisbon and the strangest party in history where Nazis and Allies, refugees and entrepreneurs dance to the strains of opportunism and despair. Felsen's war takes him to the bleak mountains of the north where a brutal battle is being fought for an element vital to Hitler's blitzkrieg. Late 1990s, Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is investigating the murder of a young girl with a disturbing sexual past. As Ze digs deeper he overturns the dark soil of history and unearths old bones. The 1974 revolution has left injustices of the old fascist regime unresolved. But there's an older, greater injustice for which this small death in Lisbon is horrific compensation, and in his final push for the truth, Ze must face the most chilling opposition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187362 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In such distinctively written novels as A Darkening Stain and Blood is Dirt, Robert Wilson established a solid claim to be the heir apparent of such major writers as Graham Greene in fusing thriller elements with brilliantly written novels of character. His speciality was the luminous creation of atmosphere in his exotic locales, and his 1999 Golden Dagger winner, A Small Death in Lisbon represents the most cogent example yet of this rare ability.

Europe, 1941: Lisbon is one of the world's tensest cities, and as the Nazis and Allies jostle for power, Iberia becomes a fulcrum for the menace that is about to engulf Europe. Klaus Felsen, torn from his Berlin factory to become a reluctant member of the SS, finds himself drawn into a savage battle for a vital element in Hitler's Blitzkrieg. There he meets a man who will set in motion a sinister conspiracy that will last to the end of the century.

Lisbon, 1998: Inspector Zé Coelho is struggling against the closed ranks of his colleagues in the investigation of the brutal murder of a young girl. Her disturbing sexual past is the focus for his colleagues' attention, but as Coelho begins to unearth some remarkable secrets behind her death, he encounters a plot that stretches beyond the 1974 Portuguese revolution--back to the atrocities of the fascist regime. Soon he is facing a terrifying opponent in his battle to uncover the horrors of the past.

The protagonist as an outsider in a hostile community may not be a new literary device, but rarely is it so adroitly handled. Coelho is a fully rounded character, vividly realised and handled with an unflinching honesty. The complexity of the narrative stays clear and compelling because of Wilson's ability to sharply rein various plot lines, while slowly allowing them to unfold. Although more ambitious and epic in its scope than his previous books, A Small Death in Lisbon retains all the author's customary and mesmerising imagery:

It was at about that time that a girl started to make her dent in the sand no more than the few hundred metres away from where I was sleeping. Her eyes wide open, she moonbathed to a night full of stars, her blood slack, her skin cold and hard as fresh tuna.

Review
Compulsively readable! rich in history and intrigue, love and death. Bold, inventive and wholly successful! Wilson unmistakably delivers the goods.' Literary Review 'This is vintage suspense writing; sharp, cold, mean and funny.' Alan Furst 'A gripping and absorbing drama that spans Europe from wartime Berlin to contemporary Lisbon.' Val McDermid 'A class act!For once a novelist influenced by Raymond Chandler is not shown up by the comparison.' Sunday Times

About the Author
Robert Wilson has spent several years in West Africa, and he drew on this experience for his Bruce Medway novels. He and his wife now live in Portugal, the setting for 'A Small Death in Lisbon'.

Customer Reviews

A Small Death in Lisbon, Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson? Is he currently the the most underrated male crime writer? Very possibly. He gets huge amounts of critical acclaim, and those who read his books seem to love them also, but where the popularity? Where are the sales to match the quality, a la Ian Rankin or Michael Connelly? Wilson probably deserves them more, actually. I've read three of his books now, and each one has been absolutely superb.

A Small Death in Lisbon, with its brilliant dual narrative - one focusing on the exploits of the Germans in Portugal during the second world war, the other on the investigation of Inspector Ze Coehlo into the death of a Lisbon teenager - is an excellent piece of work in almost every way. A Gold Dagger winner, its structure is clever, and the two stories intertwine brilliantly. The book arches high, supported on the pillars of history, and becomes far, far more than a crime novel. Wilson writes excellently, with an intelligence and slight cynicism that really make the novel, and Ze Coehlo, while he may be damaged in the vein of many other contemporary detectives, is an excellent creation, and an incredibly compelling protagonist.

I've not a lot else to say about this book, save from that it's excellent. If you want proof that crime fiction is just as good as any other form, then Robert Wilson is one of several writers who will provide it in spades.

Fascinating, but ultimately frustrating, mystery.
Two different settings and time frames--Germany and Portugal in the waning days of the Third Reich, and contemporary Portugal, with some of the same characters--allow the author to overlap both a complex historical thriller with a traditional murder mystery in unique and fascinating ways. Klaus Felsen, forced to work for the Nazi SS near the end of World War II, is sent to Portugal to buy as much wolfram (tungsten) as he can get, to be used in the manufacture of armor-piercing weapons. He is also responsible for privately smuggling out a great deal of German gold and some stolen art when it appears that Germany will lose the war, a job made more palatable when he realizes that he and his partners can profit greatly in the years after the war if they are careful to avoid discovery.

All these details come into play when a young Portuguese girl, seemingly unconnected with any of this, is found murdered fifty years later in contemporary Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is assigned to solve the mystery of her death, a death which eventually reverberates throughout Lisbon society, the émigré population, the police department, the federal Justice department, political parties past and present, and even the foundations of the present government.

If all this seems like a lot to take on, it is. Although the book is beautifully written with fully developed, imperfect, and quirky characters one grows to like and understand, fine and vivid description, and a fast-paced plot with something happening all the time, ultimately it is difficult to make all the connections required by the fifty year chronology of the plot. Although I worked hard at this, and (mistakenly) thought I had succeeded as I worked my way to the conclusion, the last twenty pages had me scratching my head trying to figure out the final details and the secret motivations of the main characters, all of which are necessary for a successful resolution of this very complex plot. Mary Whipple

Extremely Well Done
The Golden Dagger Award first introduced me to the work of Michael Dibdin and his, "Aurelio Zen" series. For the second time this award has brought about another new Author who writes a phenomenal tale. "A Small Death In Lisbon", by Robert Wilson is not his first work, but unfortunately is the only writing of his available in the US at present. This book should change that status.

This work does not just shift between 2 points in time; rather it brings forward one storyline from decades ago to mesh perfectly with the second storyline, which is contemporary. The initial flare is that there is no hint as to how these two stories and their characters will ever mesh much less come together in a beautifully crafted and simple penultimate end. The final series of pages reveal an incredibly complex ending that is as true and clever as it is intricate.

Both storylines contain extreme examples of human behavior that might be too graphic for some. I would compare it to the series centering on Hannibal Lechter, the circumstances are at times extreme and very unpleasant, but they are not gratuitous. The book unfolds from Nazi Germany and wartime Lisbon, all the way to Lisbon, as it exists in a contemporary time. The political upheavals and the groups that cause and enforce them are at times brutal, but it is as it took place when Historical Events are included.
This is a very good tale whether mysteries are normally your choice or not. The book is very well written, extremely complex while never contrived or cliché, and the Author does not show his last card until almost the last few paragraphs.

Unconditionally Recommended!