The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940's and the dark early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a journey fraught with jealousy, suspicion, vengeance, and lies, a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma of the mystery hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's enchanting fictional world.

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The book continues the story that started in The Shadow of the Wind and also has ties with The Angel's Game which story takes place before The Shadow of the Wind. In many ways it’s a really good story, you get to know what happened to David Martin from The Angel's Game and his connection to the Sempere family. Well, you don’t get all the answers, the ending has a “to be continued” feeling over itself. And since the book had only 300 pages (the Swedish version) and I just think Carlos Ruiz Zafón could have written well at least 100-200 pages more and just given the book a better ending instead of leaving one hanging. Well, it’s a smart move because now one just has to have the next book… when it comes…

The Angel's Game was such a great book that really pulled you inside and this book for all its promises didn’t really reach the same level, it was good and I love the connection to The Count of Monte Cristo (need to re-read the book), loved to know what happened to David Martin, how and where he wrote his book. I just want more…more Daniel Sempere and more David Martin…more about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books...