Books: The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2018)

"Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents. As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future."

While a satisfying, if over-long, finale to a quartet of books, The Labyrinth of the Spirits may be the weakest entry in Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. While the prose remains strong, gorgeous even, the tale takes forever to get moving –to the point where I thought of giving up. The plot is complex, but not overtly intimidating, though out of the four books, this one should be read last (it was said that the books can be read in any order), as characters from the three previous books are all here. 

Much like other books, as well, we get a mystery, literary references, some bright and high humor, and a large body count. Alicia proves to be both a formidable creation, but can be irritating as well. She is clever, and sometimes that’s just because the plot requires her to be –same as the pain in her side happens when needed. But she is the anti-hero we’ve seen over the last few decades in TV and movies. 

These books, really, cling to the old-style way of telling a story, with much attention being paid to Spain itself as to the humans that occupy the country. A modern book, with old time charm.