Solving a criminal enigma is just one of the attractions of “The Final Problem”, the first novel in which Arturo Pérez-Reverte leaves his favorite genres, the historical war and action and espionage, to pay tribute to the classic detective novel. the so-called Whodunit, Who did it?, which was initiated by Poe and reached its exemplary form in England in the first half of the 20th century with the works of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. The intrigue starts with a crime – to which others can join – in a limited scenario, where you have to find the culprit, discover how he did it and why. Pieces of a puzzle open to the reader.
In June 1960, the actor Hopalong Basil (obviously a transcript of Basil Rathbone) travels on vacation to the Greek island of Corfu on the yacht of a film producer and his partner, a soprano (the novel is full of winks). A storm diverts them and they must anchor on a small island where there is only one hotel that houses a dozen people. Suddenly a woman appears in a changing room on the beach. She is the enigma of the closed room. It is ruled out that she committed suicide. The Police will take a while to arrive. We must investigate what happened, and no one better for that than someone who played Sherlock Holmes. A Spanish writer of pulp novels, Watson becomes his assistant. When they are investigating, another dead person appears. While the search reaches the “necessary and surprising but not supernatural solution” that Borges demanded, Pérez-Reverte makes an apology for the police of another time, the film noir of the 40s, recalling plots and great Hollywood actors, to the time he laments the decline into which the crime novel has fallen in recent times. It can be read non-stop, it accompanies a trip well or is a nice vacation read.
M.S.
=Arturo Pérez-Reverte, “The final problem” (Bs.As., Alfaguara, 2023, 319 pages)
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
