The siege - Arturo Prez-Reverte

WINNER OF THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2014

Cdiz, 1811. While the city is under siege from the marauding French army, an even greater menace is lurking within the city walls: a serial killer is on the loose, flaying young women to death. Each of these murders takes place near where a French bomb has just fallen. In order to find the murderer, police commissioner Rogelio Tizon begins to perceive the city as a vast chessboard as he tries to predict his unknown opponent's next deadly move.

In the claustrophobic atmosphere of the besieged town, an heiress, an unscrupulous corsair captain, a taxidermist who is also a spy and a hardened soldier begin to cross paths, and behind them all the figure of Tizon is getting closer to deciphering the lethal pattern behind the murders...

With all the intrigue and romance of Prez-Reverte's bestsellers, THE DUMAS CLUB and THE FLANDERS PANEL, THE SIEGE is the story of a city and a people who will never be the same again.

Arturo Perez Reverte lives near Madrid. Originally a war correspondent, he now writes fiction full time. His novels include THE FLANDERS PANEL, THE CLUB DUMAS, THE FENCING MASTER, THE SEVILLE COMMUNION, THE NAUTICAL CHART, THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH and the bestselling CAPTAIN ALATRISTE series. In 2003 he was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy. His website can be visited at www.perez-reverte.com

That rare thing, an old-fashioned, proper, big novel: The Siege is as much a thickly described historical fiction as a many-layered crime novel. The judges admired the claustrophobia of the siege of Cadiz (for both sides) during the Peninsular War that forms the detailed background to the investigation and the author's serious ethical intentions. To quote Orson Welles, Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION

This is a big and bold novel, rich in character and incident
THE SUNDAY TIMES - Nick Rennison

I was totally drawn in. I felt as
though I was living through the siege with the characters - the fear, the
hunger, the pretence of normality when a bomb might kill you at any moment.
We moved from high-life at the theatre to low
in the taverns, from policeman to spy, from Spanish lines to French.
I loved the scenes at sea, which were very
vividly done.
I felt I came to know the
characters... This is more novel than crime story, with the
murders being a strand in a much larger story, and it's a challenging read - but
well worth the effort.
If you want
something that will engross you wholly in another world, try this.
MYSTERY PEOPLE

Arturo Perez-Reverte's bold new thriller...The Siege is his best yet: an ambitious intellectual thriller peopled with colourful rogues and antiheroes, meticulous in its historical detail, with a plot that rattles along to its unexpected finale
THE OBSERVER - Stephanie Merritt

Peopled with a cast that would not be out of place in an Almodovar film, Perez-Reverte's novel is an intelligent thriller packed with intrigue and romance
DAILY MAIL - Kathy Stevenson

Arturo Perez-Reverte has long been Spain's most popular, inventive writer of historical fiction... this is a big and bold novel, rich in character and incident
THE SUNDAY TIMES - Nick Rennison

A thrilling novel that is packed with intrigue and romance
DAILY EXPRESS - Harry Hodges

Crime fiction and a historical setting make impressive bedfellows in Prez Reverte's latest offering... Thrilling.
THE LADY - Martyn Colebrook

A sweeping panorama of life in besieged Cadiz during the Peninsula War
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

Prez Reverte recreates the whole world through unforgettable
characters, notably Lolita Palma, a lone woman running the family
merchant house. History, adventure and philosophy. Unless your Spanish
runs to terms of a nautical nature, this is best read in translation
TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT - Judie Newman, professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham

A manhunt, war, romance, plenty of intrigue and action, and numerous twists and turns - this novel comes highly recommended. It's entertaining, well-written and virtually impossible to put down. I doubt you'll be disappointed
LIVING SPAIN

Arturo Perez-Reverte is Spain's best known modern novelist and one of the great
European adventure storytellers in a line stretching back to Dumas and beyond.
His 13 previous books, all immaculately researched and historically accurate,
have dealt with much of his country's quest for empire and European domination,
but his latest - and many could argue his best - is set solely in the vibrant
port city of Cadiz during the Peninsula War... This beautifully written and fast-paced series of linked stories offers a
manhunt set against its central war theme; a romance; first class action scenes;
some fascinating, if bizarre, ideas on scientific detection - and an unexpected
ending... It's a hugely ambitious and intellectual thriller
with no heroes, and is far more than a simple whodunit... a riveting blend of incident, historical
background and some piercing insights into the mercurial Spanish
psyche... intelligent,
fascinating and easily read.
WWW.CRIMEREVIEW.CO.UK - John Cleal

Prez-Reverte begins with several different strands of story and weaves them into a rather impressive web. The level of detail is meticulous but also beautiful; his descriptions of the town and people of Cdiz capture colors, smells and personalities, making the page come to life, and he balances these sensory passages with dense observations about history, metaphysics, science and human nature. . . A genre-bending literary thriller worth the time.
KIRKUS