Just as the previously reviewed book by this author (A Small Death in Lisbon) is multi-layered with different time strands, this
has an extensive back story both in narrative form and as diary extracts which the author has created extensively and then
used only parts of them. The present day story is that of a police inspector in Seville investigating a series of linked murders
to which he receives clues. He is convinced, rightly as it turns out, that the answer lies in the past and the book gradually
unravels the past links through his father's diaries. The latter is a celebrated painter now dead and the deciphering of his
past provides the answer eventually. As is so often the case, the policeman is flawed personally. As well as many self- doubts he is getting over a failed marriage which is not helped by his ex-wife having an affair with the instructing judge.
There are a number of set pieces some of which are background though one turns out to be another killing by the murderer.
Complicated but well written and an acceptable denouement which fits the overall story.
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