This book had been on my reading list for a while; I believe it was on one of the year-end book lists. It is a mystery set in Barcelona in the 1920's.
I was hoping to like this book. The story is about a young author who is fired from his job at a newspaper and then approached by a mysterious man to write a particular book for him. The man is not who he seems, and neither are some of the other characters. Ruiz Zafon does a wonderful job evoking a creepy, gothic Barcelona that is scary and damp and filled with suspicious characters. But where the book fell short for me was that the plot was very complex with a long cast of characters. Significant portions of the book were devoted to discussions of theology and belief systems that did not connect to the plot for me. And there were several surprises and plot twists that were annoying to me rather than delightful.
Ruiz Zafon remains one of the most admired contemporary mystery authors, but this one missed the mark for me.
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