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A Novel
by Arturo Perez-Reverte
In this locked-room mystery set in 1960, a washed-up actor puts his on-camera detective skills to the test when a suspicious death shatters the quiet peace for a group of strangers staying at an isolated Greek island resort. Perfect for fans of Knives Out, Benjamin Stevenson, and Anthony Horowitz.
June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens next: Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside a beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all time. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes' amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best equipped to uncover the truth.
But when a second body is discovered, there is not a doubt in Basil's mind: a murderer walks among them. What's more, the killer is staging each crime as a performance, leaving complex clues that bear an eerie resemblance to those found in the pages of Conan Doyle stories. This is a criminal who knows every trick in the book and is playing a deadly literary game. As the storm rages, Basil must become the genius detective he has only pretended to be.
This clever, whip-smart, locked-room mystery from internationally bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte is a love letter to golden-age detective novels. The Final Problem delights in exploring the tension between an investigator and his suspects, as well as a writer and his reader, delivering a revelatory twist that will shock even the sharpest of mystery fans.
"This is a gift to whodunit fans." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Clever and entertaining but also somewhat melancholy, poignant—a reflection on a time gone by, a generation now passed... A sly love letter to the immortal detective, his creator, and the golden age of cinema." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The Final Problem is a brilliantly devised meta-mystery, a concoction of old Hollywood glamour with a high-body-count murder mystery. A true delight right up to its clever final reveal." ―Peter Swanson, author of Eight Perfect Murders
"One of the best crime novels I've read in years. An elegant and engrossing puzzle. Murder mystery bliss."―Kelly Mullen, author of This Is Not a Game
This information about The Final Problem was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Arturo Pérez-Reverte was born in Cartagena, Spain, in 1951. He was a war correspondent for twenty-one years and covered eighteen armed conflicts for newspapers and television. With more than twenty-seven million books sold worldwide, translated into forty languages, many of his works have been made into films and television. Today, he devotes his life to literature and to sailing. He is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.
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