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Title: The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Jull Costa ISBN: 0-15-602958-8 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 07 June, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.32 (97 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: An enjoyable read..
Comment: In "The Flanders Panel", Arturo Perez-Reverte has written something of an old fashioned whodunit that unfurls like film noir. Our heroine Julia is an art restorer with an excellent reputation and a passion for her work. She uncovers a hidden message in a painting, "Who killed this knight?" and breaks open a long dead mystery. This mystery could very well cause her life but once involved she realizes she can't pull out.
I enjoyed the mystery aspect and even the art restoring aspect but since I am not the world's best chess player some of the moves (o.k. most of them)explained in the book went a bit over my head and I had to re-read a couple of passages because of it. If you have no liking for chess this may not be the book for you since the mystery and the chess game are very much entwined.
The secondary cast of characters were interesting as well, especially the fellow she enlists to help her solve the chess game. We aren't given a lot of information about him but what we are given, speaks volumes about the kind of person he is. I was also surprised by the ending and who was behind it. Although, I did find the ending anti-climactic, a bit of let down and also felt it ended a bit abruptly. I would still recommend this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: A deadly game of chess.
Comment: Arturo Perez-Reverte's mystery, "The Flanders Panel," takes place in Madrid and was translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. It deals with a mysterious work of art, "The Game of Chess," that was painted by a Flemish artist, Pieter Van Huys, in 1471. Julia, an art expert who has been restoring this painting prior to its being auctioned off, suddenly unearths a message hidden in the painting. The message, "Quis necavit equitem?" is Latin for "Who killed the knight?" It prompts intense speculation as to why the painter first included this message in his painting and later painted over it.
It turns out that the game of chess depicted in the painting provides clues to the meaning of the message, which relates to matters of political intrigue in the fifteenth century. Suddenly, the intrigue reaches into the present when a noted art historian is found dead under mysterious circumstances. It soon becomes apparent that the murderer is an individual with a macabre sense of humor and a thorough knowledge of chess.
I was disappointed in "The Flanders Panel." The characters, including Cesar, who is Julia's surrogate father, Menchu, Julia's best friend and the owner of an art gallery, and Señor Muñoz, a chess expert, are all rather flat and uninteresting. The book is talky and plodding, the plot is too complicated, and the references to chess are incomprehensible to a non-player. The sole aspect of the book that interested me was the history of the painting and the meaning of the hidden message. It is unfortunate that the rest of the novel lacks enough plausibility, suspense, and excitement to make "The Flanders Panel" an entertaining mystery.
Rating: 3
Summary: There was a movie made about this...
Comment: If I am not mistaken, there was a movie made about this book in the early 90's which starred a very, very young Kate Beckinsale. Seemed to me it was her first movie. I couldn't remember the movie's title. Might be the same but "The Flanders Panel" doesn't ring a bell on me. Although I have not read this book (but I am giving it 3 stars based on the plotline), I would think reading the book is a lot better than the movie - which I personally think stunk bec of the acting. I rented the DVD from Blockbuster only bec I was intrigued by storyline synopsis.
Watching the movie just ruined it for me before becoming aware that it was from a book.
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Title: The Club Dumas: A Novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Sonia Soto ISBN: 0679777547 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Fencing Master: A Novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte ISBN: 0156006847 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 07 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte ISBN: 0156006391 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 06 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret Sayers Peden ISBN: 0156013053 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Andrew Hurley ISBN: 0399151850 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 03 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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