Kirkus Review
Southern gothic meets Euro hipnessin Catalan novelist Cantero's inventive, enjoyable outing in postmodern mysterywriting.Take a mysterious mansion, "plus anoseless suspect, a dead criminal wanted in six states, one fugitive, a missinglawyer, seventeen people in the morgue, two in surgery, and lots of paperwork,"and you've got the makings of a scenario that's surely good for setting tongueswagging in small-town Virginia. Yet most of the good citizens of Point Blesshave long been unaware of the goings-on at the Wells mansion, where the ghostsof suicides wander among dark corridors and hidden rooms. Cantero lets us knowat the outset that we're in on a very long joke, with winkingthrough-the-fourth-wall asides ("I've noticed that all manuscripts are bad; anybook randomly opened in a friend's house is good; the same book in a bookstoreis bad. When this story is completed, that beginning will turn better"). Anystory that features a lawyer named Glew and a butler named Strckner isautomatically promising, never mind hesitant openings, and our protagonist'ssidekick is a welcome force of nature, a mute Irish girl who is both amanuensisand ninja. And if that protagonist starts off the proceedings wide-eyed and nave, delighted by such small things as rural cafes with "manysauce bottles and thingies against the glass," he emerges as a capable playerin a game of poltergeists, hollowed-out books, malevolent masterminds andsundry secrets in a setting that wanders between real and dream worlds,alternate realities blending with elective affinities.Freemasonry, of course, figures intothe equation. Quirky in presentation and good fun throughout, Cantero's yarnpleases at every turn. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.