[Edited 3/29/23]

A murder mystery with great local color of Seville, Spain.

A handsome young priest works for the Vatican’s (let’s call it) 'Internal Affairs Division.' He is called to Seville to look into the mess surrounding a potential church closing. It’s a tiny parish and the diocese can make a lot of money by demolishing the church and selling the land.



The problem is that a few diehards want to keep the church open. These include a crotchety old priest and his young protégée; a glamorous young woman whose antics get her in celebrity newspapers; her mother who gives money to support the church, and a renegade American nun who is working on restoring the church statues and artwork.

The husband of the glamorous woman is a banker who is in on the financial deal to sell the land. The banker hires a trio, two men and a woman, a kind of Three Stooges, to spy on the various parties and to make sure the church closes. So we add humor.

Then, one by one, three people die in the church under mysterious circumstances.

The young priest and the glamorous woman are attracted to each other. Let’s just say that everyone in the novel ends up with a lot to confess.

Fast-moving and a good read.



The Spanish author (b. 1951) has written about three dozen novels, most translated into English. He’s best known by English readers for The Club Dumas and his Captain Alatrieste series - a swashbuckler series set in 17th-century Spain. (Five of the seven in that series are available in English.) I’ve read two other novels by him, The Painter of Battles (I gave that a ‘3’) and The Flanders Panel (a ‘4’).

Photo of Seville from ourworldforyou.com
The author from publishersweekly.comhumor murder-mystery spanish-authors81 s JamesAuthor 20 books4,027

3+ stars to Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Seville Communion, a Spanish-to-English translated thriller novel with a very intriguing story about the Catholic church, corporate corruption and love. This was a good book, and I'd recommend it to fans of the genre or of translated novels; however, it could have packed even more of a punch, which is why it falls somewhere between a 3 and 4.

Story
Father Quart works in a special research unit (IEA -- Investigation for External Affairs) within the Catholic church, and he is sent to Seville, Spain, where someone has hacked into the Pope's personal computer to leave a message about helping a church about to be demolished. Quart, a young and handsome priest who follows the rules, finds himself torn between a lustful woman, different sides of the church and a town divided in what to do about the church. The land was deeded to the church hundreds of years ago as long as mass is said every Thursday in someone's honor. But when a ruthless corporation and corrupt town government want to sell the land to make more money, everyone's lives are in danger. The business man's wife is in the papers for cheating on him and the priest who runs the church is suspected of murder. Who's playing games and what's really going on beneath the surface? Quart finds out in the end, but he never really knows who to trust.

Strengths
The cast of characters is dynamic and complex. Within the church, you've got very different types of priests, and each one makes valid points about why their way is the right way. The woman having an affair almost makes you root for her to be successful against her husband, and her husband even comes off as respectable and honorable at many points. The 3 villains who have been hired to kill the priests are laughable and vivid. The lead priest, Father Quart, has a lot of depth, and you feel his struggle throughout the novel. I'm still unsure why he remains a priest, but it adds great conflict in his story and the church's story.

b>Suggestions
The plot is very strong, but it is purposely revealed in small amounts to draw readers in. It works, but when you get to the last 50 pages, it unwinds rather quickly with very little backstory given to support why each person made the decisions they made. It is believable, yet you want more to help drive home the complexity of the story and the need for everyone to get what they wish for. With some tweaking and a few additional story points, this would be a very strong novel.

Final Thoughts
For fans of thrillers and those with interest in the Catholic church, this is a great read. It certainly says many good things and many bad things about the church, and there is a lot of history about Spain to draw comparisons and conclusions about what really happened in the early 20th century. The language is beautiful and the messages are vivid. Very few translation issues if anything to even comment on. I'd read more by this author... definite style!1-fiction76 s Overhaul389 1,060

Un pirata informático que se infiltra en el Vaticano. Una iglesia barroca, en sevilla, que mata para defenderse. Tres pintorescos malvados que aspiran a mantener viva la copla española. Una bella aristócrata andaluza. Un apuesto sacerdote-agente especialista en asuntos sucios. Un banquero celoso y su secretario ludópata. Una septuagenaria que bebe coca-cola. La tarjeta postal de una mujer muerta un siglo atrás. Y el misterioso legado del capitán Xaloc, último corsario español, desaparecido frente a las costas de Cuba en 1898.

Puntuación:??????????

Una atractiva historia de lujuria, codicia, fe, traición y asesinato. Ingredientes de lo más suculentos, bien integrados y estructurados.

Con tan interesantes ingredientes, Arturo Pérez-Reverte construye en "La piel del tambor" una ingeniosa, compleja y fascinante trama novelesca. Con su imaginación desbordante, y un espectacular dominio de la ingeniería narrativa y de los diversos géneros superpuestos -misterio, policíaco, histórica, algo de pecador romance, aventura- nos sumerge sin aliento en una historia que corta al lector cualquier posible retirada, arrastrándolo a un enigma cuya clave se esconde a la sombra de los viejos muelles del Guadalquivir; donde todavía hoy, en las noches de luna llena, sombras de mujer agitan sus pañuelos y goletas tripuladas por fantasmas siguen zarpando rumbo a las Antillas.

Un joven sacerdote trabaja para el Vaticano, llamémoslo "División Especial". Es llamado a Sevilla para investigar un turbio asunto que rodea el posible cierre de una iglesia.

Una parroquia pequeña y la diócesis puede ganar mucho dinero demoliendo la iglesia y vendiendo el terreno.

El problema es que algunos quieren mantener la iglesia abierta: un viejo sacerdote bastante cascarrabias. Una joven glamurosa que sale en periódicos, su madre que tiene el dinero para mantener dicha iglesia, y también una monja renegada que trabaja en la restauración de las obras de arte de la iglesia. El esposo de la joven es un banquero que está involucrado en el trato financiero por la iglesia.

Ritmo rápido, con sus buenas dosis de hostias que termina siendo una muy interesante y entretenida lectura.

Un thriller ambientado en el mundo clerical y que trata sobre asesinatos misteriosos, política eclesiástica, altas finanzas y crisis de fe, el libro me recordó a Umberto Eco. Reverte se muestra concienzudo en la caracterización y la ambientación.

Pérez-Reverte desarrolla una intrincada danza de desvío y misterio, incorporando al juego un elenco de personajes bastante variopinto, algo pecadores.. ??
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