A treasure hunt for a Jesuit ship sunk by pirates off the coast of Spain is the plot on which Perez-Reverte's new novel turns, but a love story is the real heart of this nicely crafted, carefully told adventure. A suspended sailor happens on a maritime auction in Barcelona, where he meets the beautiful Tanger Soto, a museum curator whose winning bid buys her a 17th-century atlas that may reveal the final resting place of the Dei Gloria. Coy, the sailor, is totally smitten, so it's no surprise that he signs on to help Tanger track the sunken ship to its grave in waters he's sailed since childhood. Enlisting the aid of a diver friend, Coy and Tanger stay a few steps ahead of the crooked salvagers who've been trying to get the atlas, outmaneuvering the attempts on their lives and the efforts to keep them from the treasure. Perez-Reverte (The Fencing Master, The Club Dumas) is better at plumbing the mysteries of the human heart than those of the sea, but The Nautical Chart manages to combine history, suspense, and obsessive love in a slow-paced but ultimately engrossing read. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
Popular Spanish novelist Perez-Reverte (The Fencing Master; The Club Dumas) is known as "the master of the intellectual thriller." But his customarily skillful blend of pop erudition and conscious borrowing of literary precedents threatens to capsize this tale of a race to retrieve a fortune in emeralds that sank off the Mediterranean coast of Spain in 1767. Manuel Coy is now in the Conrad phase of his life, having previously lived a Stevenson period and a Melville period. He is a "sailor exiled from the sea," his pilot's license suspended for two years after he ran a merchant ship onto an uncharted rock in the Indian Ocean. Attending an auction of nautical relics in Barcelona (in his "Lord Jim jacket"), Coy watches a beautiful young blonde woman outmaneuver a menacing ponytailed man to purchase a 17th-century nautical chart of the Spanish coast by Urrutia Salcedo. The woman is Tanger Soto, of Madrid's Museo Naval; the ponytailed man is a famed pirate of sea salvage, Nino Palermo. Coy comes to Tanger's defense when he sees her being threatened outside the auction house by Palermo thus putting himself in the service of a woman he is sure will eventually betray him. The characters are only too aware of the affinities of their story with The Maltese Falcon, and with a whole library of sea literature. Perez-Reverte is too accomplished a novelist to write a truly dull book, and the underwater sequences that climax the story are masterfully done. But any sea adventure that is more than half over before it makes it to the sea has to be in some kind of trouble. (Oct.)Forecast: This may not be Perez-Reverte at his best, but his second-best will be more than good enough for most readers. A first printing of 125,000 copies and a five-city author tour are in the works.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
A suspended sailor and a gorgeous woman who works at Madrid's Naval Museum join forces to uncover a sunken galleon and find themselves in hot water. From the author of intellectual thrillers like The Flanders Panel. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Spanish master Perez-Reverte has a streamlined approach to novel writing: he takes a recherch? subject say, fencing or rare books and uses it to construct a story rich in suspense, detail, and character study. The territory he covers in his latest work (after The Fencing Master) is in fact the deep blue sea. Coy, a sailor suspended for two years from the Merchant Marine, becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman named T nger Soto he encounters at an auction. There she has successfully bid on an old maritime atlas that will guide her to the Dei Gloria, a Jesuit ship downed in the Mediterranean in the 18th century. Soon T nger has drawn Coy into her scheme, which pits them against a thug named Palermo and his sidekick dwarf. All the elements are here for another literate thriller from Perez-Reverte, but this work is surprisingly less effective than its predecessors. The set-up is intriguing and the ending persuasively suspenseful, but in the middle stretches a long, becalmed section that dwells tediously on maritime detail and on Coy's endless seesawing as he considers whether to trust the obviously treacherous T nger. Perhaps those with a taste for the sea will be more drawn in; otherwise, this should work primarily for larger thriller collections.- Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Through four novels, Perez-Reverte has established himself as a master of the literary thriller. Whether his subject is chess (The Flanders Panel, 1994), rare books (The Club Dumas, 1996), the Vatican (The Seville Communion, 1998), or fencing (The Fencing Master, 1999), and whether his focus is contemporary or historical (often it is both, with overlapping plots), he unfailingly melds a multifaceted tale of intrigue with characters of depth and dimension. There is always an internal drama as well as an external one, and the richness of detail, both historical and personal, is never set decoration but always relates in a complex way to the characters and their situations. All that is true again in his latest effort, which addresses a new and rich topic: sunken treasure. Serving out a bogus disciplinary action, Coy is a sailor without a ship, as uncomfortable on land as he is calm at sea, which may account for his willingness to join Tanger Soto of the Madrid Naval Museum in her search for the Dei Gloria, a Jesuit ship sunk by pirates in the seventeenth century. With the help of the antique nautical chart of the title, Soto has pinpointed the location of the ship off the southern coast of Spain, but she needs a sailor to get her there and to help her outwit (and outfight) the rival treasure hunters also on the trail. It's much more complicated than that, of course, with layers of deception and betrayals within betrayals affecting both the search and the interpersonal dynamics. Adept as ever at mixing historical and contemporary material, Perez-Reverte takes his genrebending to another level this time by merging the swashbuckling spirit of the best sea adventures with an introspective, philosophical meditation on the idea of navigation. There is no universal meridian, Coy is forced to conclude, when the course being charted attempts to penetrate the human heart. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

Deprived of a ship, a mariner's mind turns naturally to women, so perhaps it's not surprising that sailor Coy deals with a suspension by becoming ensnared with a gorgeous fortune hunter who works at the Naval Museum in Madrid. Her scheme to retrieve a 17th-century sunken treasure lures Coy into very deep waters indeed. But Perez-Reverte teaches us that in reading, enthrallment is its own reward.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Coy is a Suspended Sailor without a ship. At an auction in Barcelona, he meets a beautiful woman obsessed with the Dei Gloria, a Jesuit ship sunk by pirates in the seventeenth century. Tanger uses her considerable skills with men and her expertise with atlases and nautical maps to search for the ship's rumored lost treasure. Coy is quickly drawn into her search and finds himself falling in love as they seek their fortune together -- or do they? This masterfully plotted novel combines richness of atmosphere with the addictive romance and mystery of the sea. It is an unforgettable adventure.

FROM THE CRITICS

John Balzar - Los Angeles Times

The Nautical Chart is a sea story told as a sailor might, off duty on the deck of his ship. With appreciation for character and detail. With keen command of pacing and no need to rush. Like any good storyteller, writer or musician, Perez-Reverte makes eye contact to be certain that he's got hold of you.

Publishers Weekly

Popular Spanish novelist Perez-Reverte (The Fencing Master; The Club Dumas) is known as "the master of the intellectual thriller." But his customarily skillful blend of pop erudition and conscious borrowing of literary precedents threatens to capsize this tale of a race to retrieve a fortune in emeralds that sank off the Mediterranean coast of Spain in 1767. Manuel Coy is now in the Conrad phase of his life, having previously lived a Stevenson period and a Melville period. He is a "sailor exiled from the sea," his pilot's license suspended for two years after he ran a merchant ship onto an uncharted rock in the Indian Ocean. Attending an auction of nautical relics in Barcelona (in his "Lord Jim jacket"), Coy watches a beautiful young blonde woman outmaneuver a menacing ponytailed man to purchase a 17th-century nautical chart of the Spanish coast by Urrutia Salcedo. The woman is T nger Soto, of Madrid's Museo Naval; the ponytailed man is a famed pirate of sea salvage, Nino Palermo. Coy comes to T nger's defense when he sees her being threatened outside the auction house by Palermo thus putting himself in the service of a woman he is sure will eventually betray him. The characters are only too aware of the affinities of their story with The Maltese Falcon, and with a whole library of sea literature. P?rez-Reverte is too accomplished a novelist to write a truly dull book, and the underwater sequences that climax the story are masterfully done. But any sea adventure that is more than half over before it makes it to the sea has to be in some kind of trouble. (Oct.) Forecast: This may not be P?rez-Reverte at his best, but his second-best will be more than good enough for most readers. A firstprinting of 125,000 copies and a five-city author tour are in the works. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Spanish master Perez-Reverte has a streamlined approach to novel writing: he takes a recherch subject say, fencing or rare books and uses it to construct a story rich in suspense, detail, and character study. The territory he covers in his latest work (after The Fencing Master) is in fact the deep blue sea. Coy, a sailor suspended for two years from the Merchant Marine, becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman named T nger Soto he encounters at an auction. There she has successfully bid on an old maritime atlas that will guide her to the Dei Gloria, a Jesuit ship downed in the Mediterranean in the 18th century. Soon T nger has drawn Coy into her scheme, which pits them against a thug named Palermo and his sidekick dwarf. All the elements are here for another literate thriller from Perez-Reverte, but this work is surprisingly less effective than its predecessors. The set-up is intriguing and the ending persuasively suspenseful, but in the middle stretches a long, becalmed section that dwells tediously on maritime detail and on Coy's endless seesawing as he considers whether to trust the obviously treacherous T nger. Perhaps those with a taste for the sea will be more drawn in; otherwise, this should work primarily for larger thriller collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/01.] Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews