A Small Death in Lisbon

For those who: are interested in Germans and Germany during WW Two, love character driven mysteries, want to experience post-revolution Portugal. Really two fascinating, layered stories in one rich book. The two settings one during WW Two and one in the 1990's are full of detail. Each story with its characters is so compelling that I resented being pulled away from it to return to the other one - yet as soon as I started reading that one I was fully engaged. The only slight disappointment is the abrupt wrapping up of the older story as it merges with more current events. The Portuguese detective, his partner and his daughter are intelligent, sensitive, quirky people who you'd want to get to know better.

Extremely literate, with mordant humor, two rich, realistic plots, complex settings, complicated characters - a truly outstanding book.

Very good murder mystery. There are almost all bad guys in the book making it a very dark read, and the violence and rapes might disturb some readers. Plot moves along well and events from 50 yrs ago in Nazi Germany and Portugal tie together in the end with a teen murdered in the 1990s. Definitely Not a book you figure out the ending to early on!
Two things kept me from going to 5 stars -- a few too many characters to keep track of, so some editing into a slightly shorter, tighter story would have been good; and some annoying wording here and there (a strange darkness settling on her like the shadow on an x-rayed lung, a nervous look fluttered....like a virgins petticoat). If the 'like a.......' descriptions had been any more common, I'd have thrown it away unfinished.

‘It’s easily forgotten, Inspector, that history is not what you read in books. It’s a personal thing, and people are vengeful creatures, which is why history will never teach us anything.’

History can be made fascinating by a good storyteller weaving an interesting tale and this book delivers. The first part of the story moves back and forth between a modern murder investigation in Portugal and WW2, which are linked later in the book. The moving back and forth is not seamless, but the author does leave an impression that relevance is coming. As the Inspector puts it about one of his own tactics, the author uses "a recognized tactic for confusing a scripted story—concentrate on a small detail and tease out the half-lies". The author does a great job establishing a sense of place and the historical context. As to the personality of the main character (and most of the present day characters), the inspector puts it best. "You couldn’t brighten him up if you offered him a Molotov cocktail and a light."

Without doubt this will be one of the most intriguing and enlightening stories that you will read in many a year. Wilson won the 1999 Golden Dagger for the best (British) mystery for that year. The book itself is a treasure trove of history and sociology as they relate to Portugal in the 20th century.

This is a dual story, the first (in 1998, relating to the title of the book) is about the body of a young girl who is found naked on the beach (not far from the home of main character Inspector Jose (Ze) Coelho (which means rabbit). She has been bashed on the head and strangled, as well as sodomized. The second (beginning in 1940) revolves around Klaus Felsen (an SS officer) who worked in Portugal during the WWII tracking down supplies of Wolfram (Tungsten) used for strengthening tank (panzer) armour.

Little by little the two stories converge (and meet after 400 pages) and Wilson doesn't show his hand for the longest time (never play poker against this author). The Felsen story takes all kinds of twists and turns including the use of Nazi gold (taken from the effects and mouths of concentration camp- read Jews- inmates) to pay for supplies during the war (and paid directly to the Salazar controlled central bank), to the setting up of ODESSA clients in Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina, to the setting up of one of Portugal's largest commercial banking enterprises.

Alternately, we get more of the story of the dead young girl and the next generation (through the Felsen story) entangled with the gold. It's a gordian knot which Ze does a laudable job of unraveling even though he is up against some very powerful people in the Portuguese government. At points in the story, dead bodies litter the landscape like so many melted snowmen, but it all comes together at the end, with a Tolkienesque ending where what seems to be the end isn't.

Running parallel to the mystery, is the changing society and mores of Portugal, from the fascist/catholic morality inspired Salazar government (with its' dirty tricks and 'disappeared people'), through the 1974 Revolution and finally the changes rought by entry into the European Economic Community (now Union).

For those hungry for a great mystery and/or thriller, you will find yourself sated at the end of this story.

Two different settings and time frames--the waning days of the Third Reich in Germany and Portugal, and contemporary Portugal, with some of the same characters--allow the author to overlap both a complex historical thriller with a traditional murder mystery in unique and fascinating ways. Klaus Felsen, forced to work for the Nazi SS near the end of World War II, is sent to Portugal to buy as much wolfram (tungsten) as he can get, to be used in the manufacture of armor-piercing weapons. He is also responsible for privately smuggling out a great deal of German gold and some stolen art when it appears that Germany will lose the war, a job made more palatable when he realizes that he and his partners can profit greatly in the years after the war if they are careful to avoid discovery.

All these details come into play when a young Portuguese girl, seemingly unconnected with any of this, is found murdered fifty years later in contemporary Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is assigned to solve the mystery of her death, a death which eventually reverberates throughout Lisbon society, the émigré population, the police department, the federal Justice department, political parties past and present, and even the foundations of the present government.

If all this seems like a lot to take on, it is. Although the book is beautifully written with fully developed, imperfect, and quirky characters one grows to like and understand, fine and vivid description, and a fast-paced plot with something happening all the time, ultimately it is difficult to make all the connections required by the fifty year chronology of the plot. Although I worked hard at this, and thought I had succeeded as I approached the conclusion, the last twenty pages had me reviewing and revising everything I had previously observed about the possible motivations of the main characters. Surprising twists are expected in mysteries. This one takes complexity to new levels. Mary Whipple

Two different settings and time frames--the waning days of the Third Reich in Germany and Portugal, and contemporary Portugal, with some of the same characters--allow the author to overlap both a complex historical thriller with a traditional murder mystery in unique and fascinating ways. Klaus Felsen, forced to work for the Nazi SS near the end of World War II, is sent to Portugal to buy as much wolfram (tungsten) as he can get, to be used in the manufacture of armor-piercing weapons. He is also responsible for privately smuggling out a great deal of German gold and some stolen art when it appears that Germany will lose the war, a job made more palatable when he realizes that he and his partners can profit greatly in the years after the war if they are careful to avoid discovery.

All these details come into play when a young Portuguese girl, seemingly unconnected with any of this, is found murdered fifty years later in contemporary Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is assigned to solve the mystery of her death, a death which eventually reverberates throughout Lisbon society, the émigré population, the police department, the federal Justice department, political parties past and present, and even the foundations of the present government.

If all this seems like a lot to take on, it is. Although the book is beautifully written with fully developed, imperfect, and quirky characters one grows to like and understand, fine and vivid description, and a fast-paced plot with something happening all the time, ultimately it is difficult to make all the connections required by the fifty year chronology of the plot. Although I worked hard at this, and thought I had succeeded as I approached the conclusion, the last twenty pages had me reviewing and revising everything I had previously observed about the possible motivations of the main characters. Surprising twists are expected in mysteries. This one takes complexity to new levels. Mary Whipple

This book was absolutely epic. It is a riveting mystery/ thriller. It starts off with a murder in Lisbon, Portugal. Then it goes back to WWII and it is fascinating to see these two story lines come together.

The plot is genius - the Nazis need more tungsten for their bombs, which they get from Russia, but since they want to attack Russia they need an alternate supply, which happens to be in Portugal. Meanwhile a detective in present day Lisbon is trying to solve the murder of a teenage girl. These two events turn out to be related in a most unusual but plausible way. The plot goes back and forth between the two storylines. Wilson puts all the pieces together perfectly.

This is a brutally violent, dark, vividly intense novel - in other words my kind of book. If you are looking for a cozy mystery, look elsewhere. The present day Lisbon detective is a great character, as is Felsen, the Nazi. Wilson works in a lot of Portugal's history and culture which ads depth without bogging things down in the slightest.

This is an absolute powerhouse of a book, the momentum never stops and you just do not want to stop reading because it is so compelling. If you like international thrillers a la The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, try this one.

Two different settings and time frames--Germany and Portugal in the waning days of the Third Reich, and contemporary Portugal, with some of the same characters--allow the author to overlap both a complex historical thriller with a traditional murder mystery in unique and fascinating ways. Klaus Felsen, forced to work for the Nazi SS near the end of World War II, is sent to Portugal to buy as much wolfram (tungsten) as he can get, to be used in the manufacture of armor-piercing weapons. He is also responsible for privately smuggling out a great deal of German gold and some stolen art when it appears that Germany will lose the war, a job made more palatable when he realizes that he and his partners can profit greatly in the years after the war if they are careful to avoid discovery.

All these details come into play when a young Portuguese girl, seemingly unconnected with any of this, is found murdered fifty years later in contemporary Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is assigned to solve the mystery of her death, a death which eventually reverberates throughout Lisbon society, the émigré population, the police department, the federal Justice department, political parties past and present, and even the foundations of the present government.

If all this seems like a lot to take on, it is. Although the book is beautifully written with fully developed, imperfect, and quirky characters one grows to like and understand, fine and vivid description, and a fast-paced plot with something happening all the time, ultimately it is difficult to make all the connections required by the fifty year chronology of the plot.

Although I worked hard at this, and (mistakenly) thought I had succeeded as I worked my way to the conclusion, the last twenty pages had me scratching my head trying to figure out the final details and the secret motivations of the main characters, all of which are necessary for a successful resolution of this very complex plot. Mary Whipple

Klaus Felsen is a peasant-turned-businessman living in Berlin during the start of World War II. A playboy with good economical instincts, he is chosen by the Nazi regime to head a wolfram-smuggling operation in Portugal.

Ze Coelho is a widowed police inspector trying to raise a teenage daughter on the Portuguese coast when the body of a young girl is found on the beach near his home. During the summer of 1999, he is paired with an inexperienced partner to undertake the mystery of the girl's murder.

Add Berlin nightclub owner Eva Bruckë, Portuguese businessman Joaquim Abrantes, bank owner Miguel Rodrigues, and retired lawyer Dr. deOliver, and you have Robert Wilson's film noir drama, "A Small Death in Lisbon". Alternating between World War II and the present, Wilson navigates two seemingly unrelated stories - one of murder, the other of deception - into a single tale of mystery and intrigue.

While the storytelling itself takes an interesting form, jumping between two different stories that eventually become one, Wilson is a bit sloppy in one way: he rushes bringing the tales together. During part one of the book, the stories alternate every four chapters. This speeds up during the second half, when viewpoints shift every other chapter to symbolize the passage of time. This approach does build some momentum, but I must admit that it did leave me a bit confused. And, while every character was believable, those mentioned at the book's start were more developed than those quickly rushed in toward the end.

A classical masterpiece? Not quite. However, "A Small Death in Lisbon" does provide an interesting read, and it kept me involved until the last page.

A Small Death In Lisbon was awarded the Golden Dagger for the Best Crime/Suspense Novel of 1999. Much of the critical praise on the dust jacket is clearly justified. Robert Wilson has crafted a complex, haunting tale of events in Portugal's fascist past that inevitably lead to a sordid murder of a young disturbed, promiscuous girl in modern Lisbon. Carefully structured with a fascinating historical setting populated by absorbing characters - all this and more, and yet I am unable to give five stars to A Small Death In Lisbon.

No one point in Robert Wilson's tale is excessively brutal, nor excessively graphic, and yet Wilson seemingly skirts on the edge of being so. In a slow, cumulative fashion A Small Death in Lisbon became somewhat distasteful and depressing. I had a sense of relief when I was able to set aside this novel. Many readers may not share my response and I don't wish to overemphasize my reaction. I have little difficulty giving four stars to A Small Death in Lisbon.

Robert Wilson is to be commended for his skill in weaving together the past and the present. Wilson bridges the initially separate story lines - WWII Nazi intrigue to acquire wolfram from Portugal and a contemporary investigation of a brutal crime in Lisbon - with a disturbing portrait of Portugal's intervening years under the fascist Salazar regime. A Small Death in Lisbon is an absorbing, haunting tale.

As an avid reader of Nazi-related fiction and nonfiction, I found this book totally captivating. Little did I know about how far the Nazi regime reached into other countries, cultures, etc. The writing is so compelling that I had to remind myself that I was reading a fiction crime novel and not a true story.
The double track (1941 vs 1990s) storyline is compelling and accomplished seamlessly. The characters are developed in such a manner that you will despise them, ache for them, or want to kill them yourself. I can't see how anyone could finish this novel without generating deep feelings towards the characters and their activities.
Tautly written, but violent and steamy. May be too much for the weak of stomach to imagine that human to human interaction can be so heartless and cruel. For those who cling to historical or personal revenge, grip tight for an engrossing, intellectually wrought rendering that will leave you squirming and reading late into the night.
By far, this was one of the better books I've read this summer. If you don't mind tension and edgy flawed characters, and how the sins of the past haunt the present, then you'll want to pick up a copy of this gem. Staring human nature in the face can be a terrifying experience, even from a distance, but Wilson has managed to pull it off. I'll be looking for more of Robert Wilson in the future. I highly recommend this book.

In 1941, Klaus Felsen is forced out of his business in Germany to begin smuggling wolfram out of Portugal to feed the Nazi war machine. In the late 1990s, teenager Caterina Oliveira is found dead in Lisbon. How are these two events, over fifty years apart, related? What brings them together is a tale of intrigue, lust, treachery and history.
Robert Wilson uses the little-known history of Portugal and the events which happened there during World War 2 to create a fascinating story. The events in Portugal, from the Salazar regime forward, affect the plot in ways that add flavor to the mystery and keep the reader interested.
The characters are all very human. All have their urges and failings, along with pretty high sex drives. Sex is a pervasive theme in this book, and some may find this a little distasteful, but we're dealing with criminals here, and they're not always nice people.
I really liked the way the mystery came together. Much like a real investigation, certain names began showing up freqently, and eventually the reasons why were discovered. A plot twist at the end, along with a slightly incomplete resolution, make for a great, if not entirely satisfying, ending.
Personally, I enjoyed this book. The mix of historical information along with the suspense of the investigation made for some great reading. It's pretty sordid in parts, on the whole, it is a good, dark mystery.

Like some reviewers said, the book is very complex in its format. It switch time frames and introduces many characters. One big issue for myself was the use of foreign names. That made some of the story hard to follow with the timeline switching back. However, with careful reading I was able to work out all the connections as the story concluded and I did not feel there were any loose ends. Besides a great story it provides a lot of historical background on the life in Portugal during WWII as well as modern day. Interesting to say the least.

Robert Wilson is one the most intelligent writers I have come across in recent months. His talent for writing a novel that does not insult the intelligence of the reader by walking them through a sub-par plot peopled with cardboard characters is incredibly admirable. I was quite sceptical when I began this novel because I wasn't confident that Wilson would succeed in his attempt to tie two separate plots within a single story into a satisfying conclusion.
The first story centers on the murder of a 14 year old girl in present day Portugal in which the lead detective on the case, Ze Coehlo, is paired with a much younger partner due to his irritating a superior officer. The second story begins in the late 1930's in Nazi Berlin when Klaus Felsner is recruited to procure Portugese wolfram for the Third Reich.
Coehlo's investigation gradually reveals that the sins of the past have come back to haunt the lives of those in the present with a vengeance. Unfortunately, nothing is as it appears and he begins to question the veracity and motivation of those around him. The only drawback to this rather interesting novel was it seemed rather disjointed in sections and the ending itself seemed rather anti-climactic after such a build-up. Although the novel was awarded the Gold Dagger in 1999 for best crime novel, it could have done with a bit more polish

Portugal is not the normal setting for murder mysteries. I don't think I've ever read one set there before, and I've read a lot of books. So it was interesting to see one, and I'll go and look to see if I can get anything else by Robert Wilson, the author of this amazing story of intrigue, smuggling, power, corruption, and vicious murder, set in Portugal in the present, with flashbacks to the WW2 era and later.
Ze Coehlo is a homicide detective, breaking in a new partner, with all that you would expect from this as a plot device. His latest case involves a young woman who's been raped and killed, her body dumped on the beach a few hundred feet from his house outside Lisbon. As he investigates the crime, and questions suspicious parents, lascivious boyfriends, and a host of people who were preying on the young woman in one way or another, he begins to unravel a mystery that stretches back more than 50 years.
Meanwhile, there are numerous flashbacks. One small difficulty the novel has is the change of voice: the 1990's segments are narrated by Coehlo himself, while the earlier segments are in the third person. Here the main character is Klaus Felsen, a Berlin factory owner with a madame for a mistress, who's trying to make money and avoid service in the SS. The SS "persuades" him to work for them anyway, and he winds up in Portugal, buying large quantities of wolfram, otherwise known as tungsten. This hardened steel is used for armor, shells that penetrate armor, and gun barrels, and is therefore very strategic. So Felsen is sent to Portugal to buy as much as possible, and keep the British from getting as much as he can. He schemes his way through the war, conspires with various partners afterwards, etc. There are doublecrosses and triplecrosses galore in this half of the story, and it's rather amoral: there's no real protagonist.
Eventually, the whole of the thing does hang together, and there's a plot twist at the end that's quite deftly handled. The atmosphere is wonderful, Coehlo, his daughter, and his partner are all compelling characters, and the plot is fascinating. I would highly recommend this book, can't speak too highly of it

Robert Wilson is a big deal across the Atlantic. This dark study of revenge that transcends generations really shows why. However, this story is, at times, so dark that one might believe that this sort of thing happens every day in Portugal. The present-day death of a 15 year old tart and its connection to Nazi gold and the Portugese tungsten market in WWII is at the heart of the story. What connection you ask? Well, at first, the only connection appears to be that these two parallel stories, told at the same time, both take place in Portugal and that's it. Wilson makes the connection at the end, but, for me, it is quite a reach. A little too much coincidence for my taste. Still, the intrigue is there as well as the location. I got dizzy with all the street names and locales, especially on the Iberian Peninsula.
Characterization is where the fault lies in this book not being a 5-star opus. The characters are not very appealing. Now, granted, some of them are nazis, some are thieves, etc. But, for the first half of the book, the only character that I even remotely cared about was the girl who was murdered - and, techncially speaking, she isn't even a character, just a corpse. Most of the men are portrayed as thugs and rapists. Abrantes, one who parlays the tungsten line into a banking endeavor in Lisbon comes to mind as well as Felsen, an Oscar Schindler wanna-be who beats one of Hitler's goons at a card game and then, for punishment, get's tossed into Himmler's gang of thieves. Case in point: In one scene, at a roadblock, Felsen goes bananas and beats the tar out of a Brit and then tortures him. Does he do this becuase the Brit is a spy or is it because they have both bedded the same girl? And speaking of girls, most of the women are portrayed as ditzy or aloof. Not a good combination. Wilson can't seem to describe any of them without alluding to "frayed knickers" or "worn out nylons".
Still, in the second half of the book, Wilson puts some meat, and humanity as well, into his detective, Ze Coelho, and even into his young, upstart partner. The intersecting stories parallel history, as well as politics and even social change and Wilson does a good job there. It's just that if you can find someone to truely care about in this epic, you're a better man than I.

The Golden Dagger Award first introduced me to the work of Michael Dibdin and his, "Aurelio Zen" series. For the second time this award has brought about another new Author who writes a phenomenal tale. "A Small Death In Lisbon", by Robert Wilson is not his first work, but unfortunately is the only writing of his available in the US at present. This book should change that status.
This work does not just shift between 2 points in time; rather it brings forward one storyline from decades ago to mesh perfectly with the second storyline, which is contemporary. The initial flare is that there is no hint as to how these two stories and their characters will ever mesh much less come together in a beautifully crafted and simple penultimate end. The final series of pages reveal an incredibly complex ending that is as true and clever as it is intricate.
Both storylines contain extreme examples of human behavior that might be too graphic for some. I would compare it to the series centering on Hannibal Lechter, the circumstances are at times extreme and very unpleasant, but they are not gratuitous. The book unfolds from Nazi Germany and wartime Lisbon, all the way to Lisbon, as it exists in a contemporary time. The political upheavals and the groups that cause and enforce them are at times brutal, but it is as it took place when Historical Events are included.
This is a very good tale whether mysteries are normally your choice or not. The book is very well written, extremely complex while never contrived or cliché, and the Author does not show his last card until almost the last few paragraphs.
Unconditionally Recommended!

This is an intriguing story about smuggling of tungsten and gold across the Portugal-Spanis border. The action mostly takes place in Portugal, with some sidebars (the 'double thread') taking place in Berlin and other German locales.
The story is one of two sets of players and their various adventures, finally meeting up in Lisbon resulting in the death of an otherwise innocent young girl (innocent only in that she found herself unknowing at the nexus of the two threads). The story was somewhat difficult to follow. The author writes as if the reader knows, or remembers, just a little bit more than this reader did!
He also threw in several twists that seemed to have little to do with furthering or fleshing out the story line.
The story, by the way, began with the German need to secure a supply of "wolfram". The story never did explain what it is or why it was important. A dictionary search reveals that wolfram is a German word meaning tungsten. Further study shows that tungsten is an important ingredient in making high-strength steel. But the book never explained that.
At least one outcome of the book for this reviewer is the desire to read more about the trade in 'wolfram' during World War II, and how it was smuggled across the porous Portugese border. The real story is probably every bit as interesting, and more understandable than this novel. In fact, such a study would probably be useful *before* reading this book.

So far, I've read 107 assorted and sundry thrillers, mysteries, court-room dramas, and the like this year. (Come to think of it, this will probably *be* the last for the year!) Anyway, this tome easily eclipses all the various comers by a fair margin.
This is a stupendously complex and vast tale, weaving (among many, many others) elements of Nazi Germany, WW II-era and currrent Portugal, avarice, corruption, sexual intrigue, and wolfram (who knew?), covering 50-plus years in the telling.
The prose is rich and dense, rife with metaphor and allegory. A window is opened onto contemporary Lisbon and environs that even the most celebrated travel writer would be envious of. Similarly, an exceedingly keen eye is focused on certain elements of Portugal's role in WW II that may have heretofore escaped most readers
The psychological characterization of the numerous players is knife-sharp, their sometimes very alarming actions fully (ultimately) explicated. These are fabulously rich characters, worthy equals to any of those by Dickens. The handling of dialogue is simply breath-taking.
I cannot disagree more strongly with the naysayers below. This is a book to be savored and treasured. Mr. Wilson has done a great service in advancing the level of craftsmanship in this genre. I look forward with eager anticipation to future work by this author.

A good read if you're interested in recent Portuguese history and/or would enjoy a novel set in Lisbon.
Two stories, one starting in the 1940s and one being a murder investigation in the 1990s, run in parallel. Initially I enjoyed the former and found the latter less interesting, though by the end I was thoroughly engaged with that one too. Certainly something a bit different, which I liked.

Robert Wilson creates two separate and disparate story lines that take too long to get to the point. It is not until the last fifty or so pages that everything start to make a form of sense.
The novel begins with the discovery of the dead body of Caterina Oliveira. Ze Coelho will investigate the case with the assistance of another police officer named Carlos Pinto. Coelho is a respected lawman and he will do everything in his power to find out who killed this teenage girl. During his investigation he discovers that Caterina lived a double life. Could this be a factor to her death?
The second story line takes place sixty years in the past during the beginnings of World War Two. Klaus Felsen has just been recruited by the SS to go to Portugal and try to acquire wolfram (tungsten) from the Portuguese mines to ship to the Third Reich. The Nazis will use this metal to reinforce their armored tanks and to make bullets. The plot takes several decades to relate and it flips back and forth to the story line. One has to be fully determined to read the entire novel in order to see the relevance but by then one does not really care. The conclusion is disappointing when one has great expectations for this work.
The author concentrates too much on visual imagery that he forgets the story. Several of the scenes were redundant and the characters have no real depth. They will be portrayed one way at the beginning of the novel only to have them do a complete one-eighty on their personalities. The best example of this is the way Coelho�s daughter is portrayed � from an innocent teenage girl to a rebellious child. Where did that come from? The author should concentrate on writing one story and sticking to it instead of making it up as the story goes. The book is a big continuity problem with no end in sight.

Book was recommended prior to our river cruise on the Douro river that began in Lisbon (bus ride to Porto). So, many of the locations mentioned in the book we experienced while visiting the city. So, from that perspective it was entertaining. It also provided some historical perspective of the dictator ships in Portugal and Spain following and during WWII. The parallel plots that fused during the conclusion were slightly disappointing but still good. If you are a bit prudish, don't read the book. Otherwise for the price, it was a good read.

When reading this book, I could not get the comparisons to Casino out of my head. I am not saying they shared plot lines, or characters, or anything else for that matter; I just kept feeling like I was reading a remake of the film, only set in WW2 Germany and present day Lisbon.
The book has a sweeping epic type of timeline. The main characters eventually give way to their adult children, who then become the focus of the book, save for the Detective trying to solve the initial murder in the present.
A Small Death in Lisbon serves up a couple of great plot twists, along with one not-so-great revelation. It was fun to read, and kept me guessing for the most part.
I suggest you read it, and see if you get my Casino reference. I am probably just nuts though.
Read it.

This is probably the first thriller I've read that is centered in Portugal. I have read Message From Malaga by Helen MacInnes, where the story is centered in Spain (not Portugal but close) - but that was 20 years back. And I remember reading The Rhinemann Exchange where part of the story, if I remember correct, takes place in the same region. So the locations here may seem exotic or not based on how Wilson describes them. He is a good writer - no doubt about it. The story goes back and forth between world war II and present (1999). That actualy makes the story more interesting. Some of the gory and steamy details could have been left out. Otherwise this is an enjoyable read.

Small Death in Lisbon was a great story--actually two stories intertwined. One of them takes place in modern-day Lisbon and follows the investigation of a murdered teenager. The other story starts in Germany during WWII. The stories finally converge around page 400, but by this time I had already become bored with the WWII story, and found myself skimming the chapters, wanting to get back to the modern story. But, by the time the stories did converge, I loved the outcome. I thought it was a great mystery/suspense novel.
I am looking forward to other books by Wilson. I really liked the characters in the book. Coehlo's first person narrative was so strong, you could really feel his struggles and frustations.

Having loved my visit to Portugal and especially Lisbon and being a lover of mysteries, I purchased this book. It contains a great deal of interesting WW II history as well as some wonderful information about Portuguese society and customs. In addition, the descriptions of Lisbon and the surrounding areas were superb. It certainly made me start thinking about another trip to Portugal. The "two stories" were woven together masterfully and kept me wondering when the pieces would fall together. The characters, too, were fascinating. I liked the story and was spell bound, rushing to get to the end. In the final analysis, however, I felt that there was too much off-the-wall sex, some of which wasn't necessary to tell the story, particularly the gross description of the dead gay man. I am certainly not a prude and do enjoy my share of modern day sex-filled literature, but this was a bit much. Normally when I finish a book I give it to one of my three adult children. This one I tossed in the trash can. I didn't want them to think this is my taste in literature.

I found this to be truly outstanding in every way. The murder plot was complicated, with many legitimate suspects and storylines converging on the victim. The other main story, beginning in 1941 and slowly accelerating toward the time of the murder, is interesting in its own right, and involves a lot of history - SS "financing" activities during and after WWII, and the history of Portugal pre- and post-Salazar. The convergence of the two stories is very well done; I kept thinking how controlled and synchronized the pacing was. We are shown how each of the main characters is affected by history's imprint upon their lives, the creeping backstory eventually overtaking and in a sense consuming the main plot. This is the richest, best fictional work I have read in at least a year.

The best read in long time. Having been to Portugal many times and visiting all the places mentioned, brought back memories and longings (saudades) to return to my ancestral homeland. The storyline was riveting and suspenseful. I hope Mr. Wilson returns to Portugal for another book.The best detectve ever Z`e Coelho should be the goal for all homicide detectives. I'll be rereading A Small Death in Lisbon again.

This book held my interest.
The people and places in and around Lisbon were intriguingly portrayed. The only thing I really didn't understand was the actual murder itself and the motive: in a way, it seems that Wilson forced that part to give a connection to the two threads of the book, post-WW2 Portugal and Portugal today.
It must be really hard for authors to make everything fall into place in the end, because very few can do it.
But who needs all that? I just like to be intelligently occupied in my free time, and this book did fulfill that need.
Wilson has taken a little history and made an interesting novel, and that's something. Diximus.

A twisted (in more ways than one) plot, great scenes in Portugal, and an unusual view of history make this a pretty good read.
In the genre of World War II Nazi intrigue, Wilson gives us a fresh take on well worn paths, and the book is absorbing.
Unfortunately, the characters are nearly all so despicable that I found myself hoping they would all die; unfortunately, only some of them do.
Further, I think Wilson has an unfortunate tendancy to over - write. He never uses one adjective when he can use two. Too often, I found myself hoping the character walking quickly down the short, dark, damp hall with a musty aroma to worship at the pearly white, cold porcelin shrine would simply go to the bathroom (hyperbole mine).
I hope Wilson will lose his thesaurus, and give us more books of this type.

Two seemingly unconnected stories are described alternately. In 1941 during WW2, Klaus Felsen, a German industrialist, is forced by Nazis to take a command of the tungsten procurement operation in Portugal. In 199*, Ze Coehlo, a police inspector, investigates a murder case of a 15-year-old girl in Lisbon.

The idea is very interesting, but I am quite disappointed. This novel is too artificial and it lacks weight and/or depth as a grand drama of a half century. Coehlo's story is tedious and Felsen's story is hasty. Especially, I lose interest when Felsen, a likable man in the beginning, turns into a savage brute too rapidly. It might be a little better if his change were described more slowly and carefully. And the conclusion may be elaborate, but it is too artificial.

Robert Wilson has written a compelling mystery. The action begins slowly at first with lots of character development and then both time and activity condense. Although the reader knows from the beginning that the two time periods being presented must ultimately arrive at a single moment, the characters and action prohibit that thought from overriding the story line. Quite the contrary, in fact, as Wilson uses the technique to drive the readers' need to know. That is the strength of this book. But contrast Wilson's strength regarding his use of time and events to create atmosphere, with his weakness developing his character's sexual behavior. All of his actors are sexually one-dimensional creating disbelief that in a story with as many characters as this, that all of them would treat sex without depth of meaning. It is not clear from the readers' perspective whether or not the omission was intentional in an effort to add grayness to cascading events, or simply Wilson's lack of imagination. What is clear is that skipping those parts said something.

I think this is thriller is basically a failure. Although it is often interesting and Wilson has crafted a highly sympathetic protagonist in the form of the Lisbon inspector investigating a murder, the plot does not hang together. There are a few unlikely coincidences and, ultimately, the solution does not meet the smell test in that it is too complex and seems tacked together to tie this complicated novel's many plot threads together at the end. Wilson's weaving in of sex is downright gratuitous (to the point where female readers may be thoroughly turned off) and his style is awash with oddly uniodiomatic English which we could possibly attribute to his long stays outside of Britain. In sum: an overhyped medium-level thriller.

I discovered a new addiction with this novel. Skipping back and forth between WWII and the present day, it is set in Portugal, and to a lesser extent wartime Germany. In addition to a narrative that covers a 50-year period in the lives of the main characters, Wilson provides settings with the kind of detail that makes events feel true. I knew that Spain had been fascist during this time, but I never knew that Portugal had its own Franco-like dictator and repressive regime which lasted beyond the war and into modern times. The detective who investigates the present-day crime referred to in the title eventually uncovers a trail of murder and corruption that reaches into the heights of modern Portuguese society. The charcters are very human, sharply drawn and believable. This is a superior thriller which can justly be described as literary as well as commercial. I am looking forward to reading his other books.

A Small Death in Lisbon
Robert Wilson
451 Pages
Available in Paperback
Berkley: 1999
Book Description
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson intertwines two tales of intrigue and murder over a course of 58 years. The novel begins in present day Lisbon, Portugal, where a young woman, Catarina Oliveira, is found dead on the coast. Ze Coelho, a homicide detective, is called to the scene to investigate her murder. From this point on he unwraps a gruesome, extensive, and complicated past, displaying that Catarina's death is on a much grander scale than one would imagine.
The story connected to Catarina's murder stretches back to the time of Nazi Germany and a Nazi named Klaus Felsen. Robert Wilson pulls the reader back and forth from the past to the present, slowly moving forward until the two stories meet at a bitter end. Klaus Felsen bribes, steals, and kills, drawing towards the future when a murder will be committed in connection with him.
In the writing of this novel Wilson has paid close attention to historical detail, showing a world in Portugal revolving around the mining industry, particularly wolfram. This metallic element, which was vital during WWII, becomes a reason for bribery and slaying within the novel.
The book in itself is difficult to describe, including small facts and circumstances that come together, allowing inspector Coelho to solve an enormous crime. His partner, Carlos, his daughter, Olivia, two men named Antonio Borrego and Manuel Abrantes, and a mysterious lover, all play a role in a novel that focuses on atrocities over a period of almost 60 years.
Personal Book Review
A Small Death in Lisbon is a novel built around intricate detail, describing a compelling mystery with surprises around every corner. Robert Wilson has spiced the novel with amazing amounts of creative description and has written a story so enticing it leaves the reader full of suspense until the final page.
This book contains a reinvention of the historical clash between good and evil, with an emphasis on the latter. Klaus Felsen is presented as a good man, but eventually commits ghastly acts and leaves the reader hating him. On the other hand, Ze Coelho becomes the hero of the novel, a man you want to succeed in his battle. The novel's theme is about mystery in itself, or the secrets that can be hidden by simple people whose past remains without closure. Each character in this book is fighting his or her past, whether it's Ze coping with his dead wife, or Klaus locked in jail for his previous mistakes. Each character longs for an escape or a resolution. This adds so much to the novel, as each person's story contributes in some way to the overall scheme.
The plot of A Small Death in Lisbon is what is most alluring. A novel so long and complicated would generally cause confusion for the reader, but I found this book so interesting that I read it swiftly and never lost track of the plot. Reading this novel is like driving down a curvy road, where at each bend you meet something more exciting and electrifying. Furthermore, the novel's conclusion is far from disappointing.
The only major flaw I found in the novel was the lack of closure with Klaus Felsen. Wilson draws him up as a strong man, focusing mainly on Klaus and Ze throughout the book. However, while Ze meets his much deserved ending, Klaus seems to just weakly fade away. The book is also quite explicit, and I would firmly recommend that this book only be read by mature readers.
Other Novels By Robert Wilson
The Big Killing
The Blind Man of Seville
The Company of Strangers
Other Novels Relating to the Theme of A Small Death in Lisbon
A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
Dark Star by Alan Furst
A Clean Kill by Mike Stewart

An intense narrative with historical images so well defined that make us "enter" the story and "see" the events as if we were eyewitnesses.

The book holds our attention from beginning to end and makes us wish that the story does not end to continue the pleasure of reading a story so well told.

For those who enjoy fiction with the Second World War as a backdrop this is an amazing book, intense, surprising and full of emotions.

I recommend this book as one of the best I've ever had the joy of reading.

Highly recommended! A Small Death in Lisbon

Enough plot giveaways in the other reviews. My opinion: 1. WRITING: Lush and unique enough to keep me too interested to skip to the end of the book. Great descriptions of food, weather, scenery and social structure in Portugal made me yearn to return to the Iberian peninsula. 2. VIOLENCE: Not as graphic as some readers would have you believe. Not at all as graphic as many movies. For instance, the main torture scene is left out, only the lead up and the aftermath are in the book. 3. CHARACTERS: Yes, I disliked almost all of them and wanted them to get what they deserved. But half of them were SS members, for pete's sake -- they are not in any way supposed to be nice people. This was a book about bad people, and about the occasional good person caught up in events with bad people, and about the basically good detective with human impulses who has to unravel events. 4. ENDING: My main criticism was that I thought the way the two plot lines tied together was a teensy bit farfetched. The last 40 pages weren't as good as the rest of the book and stretched my credulity a little. But then, Portugal is a small country and Lisbon itself even smaller, so maybe it could have happened like that. But still a little too clever. OVERALL: Absolutely recommend it. Especially if you're going to or have been to the Iberian peninsula. You will want to drink strong espresso and rich red wine, eat fresh vinegar marinated sardines and jamon from acorn fed pigs (oh I yearn for it so) right along with the characters. The writer clearly loves his food.

Nazi gold is at the heart of this thrilling adventure which crosses not only the heart of Europe but also the timespan of 50 years. Powerful writing and memorable characters make "A Small Death in Lisbon" a major triumph for previously little known author Robert Wilson, but he has taken on quite a challenge. Anyone writing a thriller will tell you to simplify matters by constricting the timespan as much as possible (there is even a thriller in real-time - the plot takes as long as it takes you to read it). Robert Wilson has ignored this advice and stretched his narrative over half a century - the result is ultimately successful but he asks a lot of the reader to stay with events in Nazi Germany and modern day Portugal at the same time. The characters are well drawn in the earlier chapters - important for the present day events to make sense - and the messages about good and evil are clearly presented. This not your regular read on the beach thriller, it challenges the reader to choose sides and confront issues. It also helps to have a little knowledge of European history. Don't worry if you don't understand the Portugese political history - few Europeans know anything about the country beyond its golf courses.
If you stick with "A Small Death" you will be rewarded with a memorable read. This is a genre novel which expands its genre and the fact that it has been awarded with a thriller writers award in Great Britain should be further recommendation.

I really liked this book. Great characters and great descriptions of Lisboa, which is really an oft over-looked city. Sometimes, I admit, I had to keep at reading since he does, sometimes, get carried away but it was definitely worth keeping at it despite those small lapses leading to some excessive length. Personally I read quickly and like a longer novel versus something I can read in one airplane trip. A gripping tale and very interesting for the machinations and psychology involved in the complicated scenario. A really good writer and his other books are equally worthwhile.

I recently read Wilson's "Company of Strangers" book and liking it so much, I decided to give this one a go. However it isn't as good.

Having 2 story-lines converge is interesting. I felt it was a bit too concocted to be believable...especially at the very ending.

The writing is a bit savage and brutal, but still quite vivid. Wilson has a way of bringing out the 5 senses and immersing you into the environment.

Based on reading "Company of Strangers", I think he could have done better with this book with some more time fine-tuning the plot and editing. Still a good read, but I can only give it 3 stars.

I realize this book received many international awards, and most of the customer reviews were positive. Having said that, this book was way too much weight for a strained, incredulous plot. A book covering a 60 year period always suggests something of historical importance to me. Unfortunately this was not the case here. The time frame scaffolding and the historical events depicted just doesn't help the slender plot. You know the two stories are coming together sometime, but the way they do seems so offhand and, really, unrelated to whatever theme the author is trying to work out. The denouement comes out of left field and is very unsatisfying. Too much work to get through this slow, heavy, so called thriller.

I recently read Wilson's "Company of Strangers" book and liking it so much, I decided to give this one a go. However it isn't as good.

Having 2 story-lines converge is interesting. I felt it was a bit too concocted to be believable...especially at the very ending.

The writing is a bit savage and brutal, but still quite vivid. Wilson has a way of bringing out the 5 senses and immersing you into the environment.

Based on reading "Company of Strangers", I think he could have done better with this book with some more time fine-tuning the plot and editing. Still a good read, but I can only give it 3 stars.

I realize this book received many international awards, and most of the customer reviews were positive. Having said that, this book was way too much weight for a strained, incredulous plot. A book covering a 60 year period always suggests something of historical importance to me. Unfortunately this was not the case here. The time frame scaffolding and the historical events depicted just doesn't help the slender plot. You know the two stories are coming together sometime, but the way they do seems so offhand and, really, unrelated to whatever theme the author is trying to work out. The denouement comes out of left field and is very unsatisfying. Too much work to get through this slow, heavy, so called thriller.

Inspector Ze Coelho investigates the 1990 murder of a teenage girl who seems to have slept around a lot. However, the key to the murder is buried in Portugal's past. The tale begins in 1941 when an SS officer comes to Lisbon, Portugal to smuggle the precious metal, wolfram, for Hitler's blitzkrieg. Even though it was well-plotted and rich with details, the tale was a bit too drawn-out for me. Readers who are more familiar with the 1974 revolution or Salazar's rule will appreciate this book more than I did.

I was disappointed after reading through so much difficult story to get to the end. The killer came out of no where... not believable at all. It was all too tidy and trite. And the relationship between Carlos & Olivia was ridiculous. Give me a break. Only a male author would write such nonsense. Oh yeah, and the father's just going to be fine with it, yeah OK. I just felt it was a farfetched story to begin with.

It was a dark and dreary, seedy and grizzly novel, and I did not care much for it. It was also very confusing at times. I didn't have as much trouble with Umberto Eco as I had with this novel.

Although this book has many favorable reviews and is fairly readable, it is not for everyone. The plot instrument of following two converging stories separated by decades is interesting to a point, but finally exhausting and frustrating as often the stories switch just when you become interested in the current vignette. While at times it was captivating and kept me up late, the ending was predictable with a "gotcha" twist and I had to force myself to finish the book. All of the characters are flawed and some are quite disturbed. The women characters in particular are unbelievable or deviants. I buy many books. The best I keep and the rest I donate to the library. This one I added to the recycling.

Are you thinking about visiting Portugal? Well, if you are, don't read this book! The country is pictured in an appalling light--virtually all of the men are coarse, brutal rapists, the women are all ..., and it almost seems as if the land itself is to blame. None of the characters are really sympathetic, and much of the descriptive prose could have been eliminated. Having said all of this, the book is well-written, and the premise is very good. It's just too long and too dark. There were times when I actually felt dirty after closing the book. What disturbed me most was that the most amoral, despicable character in the book (the lawyer "father" of the murdered girl) does not get his comeuppance. In a mystery, I want the villain to get justice in the end, and it just doesn't happen here.

I couldn't put this book down. Terrific mystery. It is not for the faint of heart...if violence and graphic sex bother you, take a pass. One of my friends really enjoyed it (it was originally recommended by her older, erudite sister); my sister is having a little trouble getting into it due to the change in time periods. I think the reason is she is reading it in small bits and then forgets and has to go back and re-read to remember what had gone before. Bottom line: BUY IT.

Great character development and insight into the Portuguese mind set are detracted by stretching the inevitability of the plot. Story ranges over a couple of nations and fifty or so years. It was too long

I just finished reading this book and I must say, I'm exhausted. Like other reviewers, I was getting a little annoyed by all the drinking, drug abuse and graphic sex throughout the novel. Also, the author tends to put Portuguese people in a very negative light by suggesting that many girls tend to engage in sex with grown men while the parents and government ignore it.

I don't understand why he had to continue to switch from the past to the present the way he did. He could have presented the story in some kind of chronological order and it still would have worked. The book was too long, had too many irrelevant details and as I stated earlier, it was very tiring.

This is essentially two books; an espionage story set largely in Portugal during WWII and a police procedural in contemporary Portugal. The WWII story sets the stage for the contemporary mystery. Wilson is a competent writer and each story is handled fairly well. These two threads are brought together at the end in a needlessly complicated conclusion. There is a good deal of gratuitous, both in the conventional sense and in the sense that it doesn't really advance the plot, violence and sex. Books with repeated scenes of rape are usually not very appealing.

A Small Death in Lisbon (1999)
Robert Wilson
Awards: Crime Writers' Association 1999 Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel
Genre: mystery - modern detective/historical WWII
Date Read: January 6, 2003- January 11, 2003
Comments: wow! excellent! two stories for the price of one, very well written, masterful storytelling, captivating, good balance of character development and descriptive setting, could have gone lighter on the graphic sex and violence
Advice: absolutely recommended - when you read it drink in every word!

As others have noted, the book needs an editor. But it also needs a close reader, and perhaps an apology to all readers. I may be wrong, but I went back and checked: the plot seems to have a fundamental flaw. A man may be able to tell, at a glance, that a child of his wife's is not biologically his. But that doesn't tell him who the biological father actually is. In the circumstances this book describes, the deceived man would have had no way at all of knowing -- or even suspecting -- who the biological father was. Only the child's mother would have known. Yet the entire plot rests on the deceived man having known that which, in fact, he could not have known, as the author describes the relevant communications among the relevant characters. Moreover, if you go back and check, you will see that the author seems to have realized this problem, but covered it up, or begun to address it but then side-stepped it, in the crucial "all is revealed" interview between the deceived man and the detective. Assuming this flaw is as I have described it, it is not peripheral but central to the entire plot.

If you like thrillers don't miss this. Simply outstanding. The writing itself is enough to make one read and reread some sections. Add to this the educational aspects and the great story and it has few peers. The other Robert Wilson books are available on the store UK and I've ordered them all.

Maybe the best thriller of all time. The span of years covered is remarkable, especially with its sustained tension. Character development was highly nuanced and realistic. Just a wonderful,meaty read!

"A Small Death in Lisbon" reads incredibly well in the middle.
At that point, both stories, a modern day murder mystery, and
a WWII Nazi smuggling story, switch back and forth with
striking momentum. So what happens? The reader becomes assaulted with a series of stomach-turning encounters: multiple rapes, demented murder, sodomy, incest. When a major plot point seems to hinge on sodomy, I started to think this book wasn't for me. However, there are plenty of good twists and turns in the last part of the book, and this book feels authentic in its history, but I felt like these elements became overshadowed by the graphic content.

So good. Great story development. But it's the little things that keep you amazed and engaged with the writing. Wilson comes up with phrasing, character insights and quips that are so true and magical they shimmer on just about every page. You know you're going to stumble on one every so often, and they pull you along.

I really enjoyed this book. There are places where it drags but the book is 450 pages long. The plot is extremely complex - but still understandable. It was one of the best books I've read in the past few months.