Penzler Pick, August 2000: Winner of the prestigious Gold Dagger Award in the U.K. for the best mystery of 1999, this complex literary thriller may be one of the most satisfying suspense novels to come along in some time. Robert Wilson has written several political thrillers, most of which are set in West Africa, but they are, alas, largely unavailable in the U.S.

In A Small Death in Lisbon, the narrative switches back and forth between 1941 and 1999, and Wilson's wide knowledge of history and keen sense of place make the eras equally vibrant. In 1941 Germany, Klaus Felsen, an industrialist, is approached by the SS high command in a none-too-friendly manner and is "persuaded" to go to Lisbon and oversee the sale--or smuggling--of wolfram (also known as tungsten, used in the manufacture of tanks and airplanes). World War II Portugal is neutral where business is concerned, and too much of the precious metal is being sold to Britain when Germany needs it to insure that Hitler's blitzkrieg is successful.

Cut to 1999 Lisbon, where the daughter of a prominent lawyer has been found dead on a beach. Ze Coehlo, a liberal police inspector who is a widower with a daughter of his own, must sift through the life of Catarina Oliviera and discover why she was so brutally murdered. Her father is enigmatic, her mother suicidal; her friends were rock musicians and drug addicts.

The reader is treated to a wonderful portrait of Lisbon in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution that ousted Salazar from power, and the scars from that conflict are still close to the surface for the citizens of Lisbon, including Coehlo and his colleagues. We also see World War II in a slightly different manner from that to which we are accustomed--through the eyes of the Germans and the Portuguese. The pace of the book is leisurely but compelling as the events of 1941 and those in 1999 merge in an extraordinary climax. --Otto Penzler


From Publishers Weekly
The real star of this gripping and beautifully written mysteryDwhich won the British Crime Writers' Golden Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel last yearDis Portugal, whose history and people come to life on every page. Wilson tells two stories: the investigation into the brutal sex murder of a 15-year-girl in 1998, and the tangled, bloody saga of a financial enterprise that begins with the Nazis in 1941. Although the two stories seem unrelated, both are so strong and full of fascinating characters that readers' attentionDand their faith that they will eventually be connectedDshould never waver. The author creates three compelling protagonists: middle-aged detective Jose Coelho, better known as Ze; Ze's late British wife, whom he met while exiled in London with his military officer father during the anti-Salazar political uprisings of the 1970s; and Ze's wise, talented and sexually active 16-year-old daughter. The first part of the WWII story focuses on an ambitious, rough-edged but likeable Swabian businessman, Klaus Felsen, convinced by the Gestapo to go to Portugal and seize the lion's share of that country's supply of tungsten, vital to the Nazi war effort. Later, we meet Manuel Abrantes, a much darker and more dangerous character, who turns out to be the main link between the past and the present. As Ze sifts through the sordid circumstances surrounding the murder of the promiscuous daughter of a powerful, vindictive lawyer, Wilson shines a harsh light on contemporary Portuguese society. Then, in alternating chapters, he shows how and why that society developed. All this and a suspenseful mysteryDwho could ask for more? (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Klaus Felsen, a Berlin businessman forced into the SS against his will in 1941, has been assigned to Portugal. From there, he ships the Germans wolframDa mineral desperately needed by Hitler's war machineDand, near the end of the war, smuggles Nazi gold in the other direction, ultimately betraying the men who control him. Over 50 years later, Inspector Ze Coelho works to solve the murder of a young girl near Lisbon and in doing so unravels a tangled skein that ties the corruption of the past to the tragedy of the present. Wilson's fifth novel, winner of England's Golden Dagger for Best Crime Novel, richly deserves both the acclaim it has garnered overseas and a wide audience in this country. Using story lines that converge in time, Wilson skillfully weaves an engrossing and complex tale, characterized by an atmospheric evocation of past and present Portugal, fascinating characters of great psychological depth, a brilliant plot that grips the reader to the last word, and an immensely satisfying mastery of craft and language. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.DRonnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review, 10/22/00
"Wilson's masterly work shows us the devastating - and ineradicable - effects of war on the human soul and the national psyche."


Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times 11/19/00
"...a tour de force: convoluted yet clear, oppressive yet seductive, distasteful yet compelling."


From Booklist
This winner of Britain's Golden Dagger for best crime novel juggles two stories, both set in Lisbon. Klaus Felsen is a German businessman forced into the SS in 1941 and assigned the task of smuggling a crucial tungsten alloy from Portugal to Germany. In the late 1990s, a melancholy Lisbon cop, Inspector Ze Coelho, must investigate the shocking murder of a promiscuous teenager. Wilson moves effortlessly between the two seemingly unrelated plots, drawing them together finally when Coelho's investigative trail leads to a long-suppressed scandal involving Portugal's ties to the Nazis. Wilson's skill at interweaving narrative threads shines brightly, and Coelho and Felsen both emerge as compelling, multilayered characters who defy our expectations. Wilson is clearly a major talent, though the massive scope of his novel--the multiple story lines, converging time frames, and enormous cast--eventually drains some intensity, leaving us more impressed with the story's complexity than overwhelmed by its power. If Wilson's reach exceeds his grasp just a bit this time, he establishes himself as a writer to watch very closely. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
Robert Wilson's A Small Death in Lisbon recently won the British Crime Writers' Golden Dagger Award, edging out such formidable competitors as Val McDermid's A Place of Execution. Much as I admire McDermid's book, I have to concur with the judges. Wilson's novel is a remarkable literary thriller, a beautifully constructed mystery that successfully illuminates the twisted, sometimes tragic history of 20th-century Portugal.

For much of its length, the story proceeds along two parallel lines. In the first, Ze Coelho, senior homicide detective for the Policia Judiciaria, investigates the murder of 15-year-old Caterina Oliveira, promiscuous daughter of an influential Lisbon attorney. When Caterina's strangled, violated body turns up on a beach outside of Lisbon, Coelho assumes he has a routine, sex-related killing on his hands. As he slowly unearths a sordid history of lies, secrets, and sexual betrayals, he comes to understand that the Oliveira case is far from routine, and that its roots reach back into the distant, deeply buried past.

A second, alternating story line elucidates that past, which begins in Nazi Germany in 1941. Klaus Felsen, a successful industrialist with a gift for languages, is forcibly recruited into Hitler's SS, then sent to Lisbon, where he attempts to corner the Portuguese market in wolfram, a tungsten-like substance critical to the German war effort. Wilson then takes us through the war years and into the years of uneasy peace that follow. In the course of those years, Felsen, together with his Portuguese-born partner, Joaquim Abrantes, uses the spoils of wartime profiteering to fund a powerful, quasi-legitimate banking empire.

This second, older story line unfolds gradually, encompassing a tumultuous era of political upheaval and numerous reversals of personal fortune. In time, the two separate narratives connect, and Caterina's murder takes its place in a long, convoluted line of interrelated tragedies. History, as Wilson tells, carries a palpable weight, and A Small Death in Lisbon brilliantly dramatizes the various ways in which the past impinges on the present, in which individual destinies intersect with the larger, more impersonal world of sweeping historical events.

Robert Wilson is both a gifted novelist and a world-class storyteller. His effortless management of a complicated narrative and his precise evocation of the changing face of modern Portugal signal the arrival of a potentially significant new voice. Wilson, who has published four earlier novels, is largely unknown on this side of the Atlantic, but that situation is, I believe, about to change. A Small Death in Lisbon is too good a book to remain a secret for long.

--Bill Sheehan

A Discover Great New Writers Selection

In this intelligent international thriller, Robert Wilson paints two parallel portraits: an historical psychological tale of suspense, and a contemporary murder mystery. Though separated by time, both tales inexorably and brilliantly come together. The first takes place during World War II, where Klaus Felsen, a prominent Berlin factory owner, is recruited by the SS to procure wolfram, an alloy vital to Hitler's blitzkreig. Felsen, a smart but ultimately selfish man, is highly successful in his dealmaking, albeit always at the expense of others. Greed, murder, and lust entwine to destroy not only his own, but numerous lives.

The second and parallel story is the present-day murder investigation of a troubled, promiscuous young girl found dead in Lisbon. The tenacious and highly ethical Inspector Ze Coelho, with the help of Carlos, a young detective assigned to the case, discovers a dysfunctional family driven by revenge and scandal, empowered by lies. Despite numerous plots twists and turns, the Inspector-ever in search of the truth-finds the murderer, but also unexpectedly unearths long-forgotten crimes. It's this "small death in Lisbon" that links the tragic past of Nazi Germany and fascist Portugal to the present, where it becomes clear that the sins of the father do rain down on future generations.

Wilson's page-turning story of political intrigue is unpredictable and highly original. In the tradition of John Le Carr￯﾿ﾽ and Martin Cruz Smith, Wilson's first novel to be published in the U.S. marks the debut of a deft storytelling talent.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Nazi wartime deals and the murder of a young girl in modern-day Portugal are linked with stunning originality and suspense.

1941. Klaus Felsen, forced out of his Berlin factory into the SS, arrives in a luminous Lisbon, where Nazis and Allies, refugees and entrepreneurs, dance to the strains of opportunism and despair. Felsen's assignment takes him to the bleak mountains of the north where a devious and brutal battle is being fought for an element vital to Hitler's bliztkrieg. There he meets the man who plants the first seed of greed and revenge that will grow into a thick vine in the landscape of post-war Portugal.

Late 1990s. Investigating the murder of a young girl with a disturbing sexual past, Inspector Ze Coelho overturns the dark soil of history and unearths old bones from Portugal's fascist past. This small death in Lisbon is horrific compensation for an even older crime, and Coelho's stubborn pursuit of its truth reveals a tragedy that unites past and present. Robert Wilson's combination of intelligence, suspense, vivid characters, and mesmerizing storytelling richly deserves the international acclaim his novel has received.

About the Author:

Robert Wilson was born in 1957. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa. He has traveled in Asia and Africa and has lived in Greece and West Africa. He is married and writes from an isolated farmhouse in Portugal.

FROM THE CRITICS

Eugen Weber - Los Angeles Times

...a tour de force: convoluted yet clear, oppressive yet seductive, distasteful yet compelling.

Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review

Wilson's masterly work shows us the devastating - and ineradicable - effects of war on the human soul and the national psyche.

Irish Times

Highly satisfying, part thriller, part psychological mystery and part novel of ideas. And superbly well written.

Manchester Evening News

Robert Wilson is a masterful craftsman, and with this atmospheric page-turner, he should find the wide readership he amply deserves.

Publishers Weekly