Walking the Lions: A Novel of Suspense

By Stephen Burgen

Book Overview

The unexpected message from Spain that his aunt has just died stuns Alex Nadal. It's not just that the circumstances of her fatal fall are suspicious, it's that his father had always led him to believe that his aunt was killed at the end of the Spanish Civil War sixty years ago. With the inheritance of her farm near Barcelona, Alex decides to leave his native New York City for his ancestral homeland. Very soon after landing on Spanish soil, however, Alex finds himself an unwelcome stranger in a country determined to keep its secrets. An unnamed party persistently makes him fantastic offers for his aunt's estate, with hints of threats if he does not sell--yet no one will answer his questions about the truth behind his true family legacy. But Alex will not be put off and his persistence brings him up against some of the most powerful forces in the country, including Salvador Oriol, the uncrowned king of Catalonia, and his nephew Narcis, a sharply dressed thug with a talent for violence. Yet Alex is not without allies, among them Carmen, the dark-eyed arts correspondent of the Barcelona daily, who seems heaven-sent. On the other side, there is Angel, doyen of hustlers and Carmen's ex-lover. In a thriller that matches top-notch suspense with the romantic atmosphere of Spain, Alex and Carmen unearth a dossier of explosive information on events that happened in 1938 and forced his father to flee the family farm. In trying to find out why, Alex discovers that this is a country where there is no past, only unfinished business.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786710241
• ISBN13: 9780786710249
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Local Color

The strength of this book is the extent to which it is infused with a palpable sense of place. There is quite a bit of accurate local color, including reference to the Catalan language spoken in Barcelona and surrounding areas. Say what one will of Burgen's characters, those who know Barcelona likely would agree with me that the people in the book reflect very recognizable types. I'm not sure that any novel in English, perhaps not even the translations of Manuel Vazquez Montalban, rings as true.