A Small Death in Lisbon
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season400 pages, about 8 hours: the length of 1.2 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbA teenage girl’s body on a Lisbon beach draws in Inspector Zé Coelho, alternating with Klaus Felsen’s 1941 arrival in Portugal.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, 6 credit the plot and 3 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne reader, comparing it to A Place of Execution on the shelf at 529 pages, calls that book’s plot tighter and better.
The case for it
on Zé’s daughter
“his intelligent perceptive daughter, who combines English and Portuguese sensibilities”
a book blog on the investigator
“an investigator of remarkable integrity and insight”
Alex Grant · Hackwriters, 2002 on the characters
“The characters are human not stereotypes”
a book blog on Portugal itself
“Portugal, whose history and people come to life on every page”
Unsigned review · Publishers Weekly, 2000
The case against
on the length
“It’s a big chunky book”
a book blog on the dual timelines
“the hoary convention of juggling two time frames”
Unsigned review · Kirkus Reviews, 2000 on the sexual content
“if you don’t like reading about sex or sex crime”
a book blog on the wartime characters
“none of the main characters in that part of the story were likable or sympathetic”
a book blog
