Walking the Lions: A Novel of Suspense - Hardcover

Burgen, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786710241 ISBN 13: 9780786710249

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2002

Synopsis

The unexpected message from Spain that his aunt has just died stuns Alex Nadal. It’s not just that the circumstances of her fatal fall are suspicious, it’s that his father had always led him to believe that his aunt was killed at the end of the Spanish Civil War sixty years ago. With the inheritance of her farm near Barcelona, Alex decides to leave his native New York City for his ancestral homeland. Very soon after landing on Spanish soil, however, Alex finds himself an unwelcome stranger in a country determined to keep its secrets. An unnamed party persistently makes him fantastic offers for his aunt’s estate, with hints of threats if he does not sell—yet no one will answer his questions about the truth behind his true family legacy. But Alex will not be put off and his persistence brings him up against some of the most powerful forces in the country, including Salvador Oriol, the uncrowned king of Catalonia, and his nephew Narcis, a sharply dressed thug with a talent for violence. Yet Alex is not without allies, among them Carmen, the dark-eyed arts correspondent of the Barcelona daily, who seems heaven-sent. On the other side, there is Angel, doyen of hustlers and Carmen’s ex-lover. In a thriller that matches top-notch suspense with the romantic atmosphere of Spain, Alex and Carmen unearth a dossier of explosive information on events that happened in 1938 and forced his father to flee the family farm. In trying to find out why, Alex discovers that this is a country where there is no past, only unfinished business.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen Burgen was born in Montreal but has lived in London for most of his life. He now lives in Barcelona where he reports on Spain for The Times. He has written numerous articles for the Guardian, Independent and magazines and in 1996 his first book, Your Mother's Tongue: a Book of European Invective, was published by Gollancz. Walking the Lions is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

Canadian-born journalist Burgen, who lives in Barcelona, where he reports for the Times of London, does a fine job paying homage to Catalonia in his first novel, a thriller with roots in the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, the vibrant Spanish setting and sharp historical background can't save an overly familiar and predictable plot. In 1938, Ignasi Nadal left Spain believing he had betrayed three rebels who were executed by the fascists. Years later, worn down by guilt, he committed suicide. Then his sister, Anna, who everyone believed had been killed in the war, dies in Spain, leaving the family farm to Ignasi's son, Alex, the story's hero. Was his father a traitor? Why did he tell his family that his sister was dead? When Alex goes to Spain to sort out the truth, he finds his small inheritance, a 25-acre farm south of Barcelona, at the center of a conspiracy. Why does a corporation want his land badly enough to threaten his life? What really happened during the war that has some prominent people ready to kill to keep secret? The answers aren't hard to guess. The author does have a knack for turning a phrase and is especially good at describing pretty girls: "Her best features: her curved-for-kissing lips and her black, almost Arabic eyes. Dark elliptical mirrors: when you looked in all you saw was yourself." And who can resist a sentence like "Her smiles were protective, they were like Wonder Woman's bangles: harmful things bounced off them"? One hopes Burgen will come up with a plot worthy of his descriptive powers next time.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786710241
• ISBN 13: 9780786710249
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288