The Hidden Assassins [Anglais] [Relié]

At the start of Wilson's strong third mystery set in Seville featuring police Insp. Jefe Javier Falcón (after The Vanished Hands and The Blind Man of Seville), the mutilated body of a nude male turns up in a municipal dump. Before Falcon has time to investigate, a huge bomb explodes in a mosque and flattens an apartment complex and a day-care center. Was it an Islamic bomb-making operation gone awry? A specific attack against Muslims? Or the work of separatists fighting to return Andalusia to Muslim rule? Falcón has a dark and tangled personal history that provides several side plots, some of which are incorporated into the terror investigation and some of which are left to be taken up in further installments. Falcón 's investigation is as detailed and meticulous as the writing, which makes for a dense tale that demands close attention, but will reward careful readers with a story that has not only plenty of plot but also in-depth character intrigue. Author tour.(Nov.)
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Modern terrorism is uppermost in the minds of those who populate Robert Wilson's new novel, but the engines driving The Hidden Assassins through to its satisfying, nuanced finish are old human emotions: greed, obsession, love.

Overseeing the detective squad in Seville, Spain, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón is no stranger to personal and professional calamities, be they ruined relationships, searing media scrutiny or high-profile cases that turn out badly. Falcón's frustrating run seems certain to continue with the discovery of a faceless, handless corpse in a Dumpster. All clues to the man's identity have been obliterated, but before Falcón can solve that mystery, his attention is diverted by an explosion in the basement of an apartment building that kills dozens. When the rubble of tangled bodies and debris reveals a clandestine mosque, echoes of the 2004 bombing in Madrid become deafeningly loud. Rumors swirl that the mosque is a breeding ground for an Islamist sleeper cell and that the unidentified man may have been involved in the bombing.

Wilson takes his time setting up a complex investigation that draws Falcón through back alleyways of secret government deals, border irregularities and illicit connections. By eschewing frenetic suspense for painstaking groundwork, he allows the reader enough room to breathe and, most important, to care about main and supporting players such as a judge fighting for his political life, a crusading reporter with shifting loyalties and police officers at times overmatched by the weight of investigation.

Most of the characters instrumental to the main story line are men, but Wilson devotes his greatest energies to the women in Inspector Falcón's life: his ex-wife Inés, a capable lawyer whose quest to hang on to her current marriage takes devastating, frighteningly believable turns, and his one-time girlfriend Consuelo, who is reluctantly seeking therapy for anxiety attacks that expose uncomfortable revelations about her traumatic early life.

For a novel so rich with detail and characters, The Hidden Assassins has one surprising flaw: Inspector Falcón's de-emphasis. Instead of driving the action, he ends up as an observer in his own series, more reflective than instrumental. But it's a minor complaint, as the novel forges a link between personal calamity and greater terror concerns.

Reviewed by Sarah Weinman
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

A quiet morning in Seville, Spain, is shattered when an apartment block explodes. There was a mosque in the basement of the apartment building, but in the days following the bombing, police inspector Jefe Javier Falcon investigates an increasingly urgent question: Did the devastation result from the mishandling of explosives by Muslim extremists or from an attack directed against them by Christian Fundamentalists? This talky book never bogs down because the talk remains smart and compelling as Falcon and his confidantes explore what drives people to commit acts of terror. The Moroccan friend he enlists to spy for Spanish intelligence even offers a possible explanation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq that's as logically persuasive as it is counterintuitive. Wilson constructs a richly layered, intricately plotted story that examines the corrosive consequences of all types of terrorism, from the geopolitical to the domestic, on victims and perpetrators. As Falcon puts it, "It happened in the Crusades; why shouldn't it happen now? While some were out there battling for Christendom, others just wanted to kill, pillage and conquer new territory." Indeed. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

As Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón investigates a mutilated, faceless corpse unearthed on the municipal dump, the beautiful city of Seville is rocked by a massive explosion which devastates an apartment building and a nearby kindergarten. When it’s discovered that there was a mosque in the basement everybody's terrorist fears are confirmed.

The high summer heat tightens its grip. Panic sweeps the city and the region is on red alert. More bodies are dragged from the rubble and terror invades the domestic life of flamboyant judge Calderón and the troubled mind of wealthy Consuelo.

With the media and political pressure intensifying Falcón realises that all is not as it appears. But just as he comes close to cracking the conspiracy he makes the most terrifying discovery of all, and the race is on to prevent a major catastrophe far beyond Spain’s borders. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Relié .