El Problema Final / The Final Problem

LA NUEVA NOVELA DE ARTURO P?REZ-REVERTE

Un crimen imposible. Un detective insospechado.

No se trata de un desaf?o entre el asesino y el detective, sino de un duelo de inteligencia entre el autor y el lector.

–Har?a falta un polic?a–sugiri? alguien–. Un detective.
–Tenemos uno –dijo Fox?.
–Todos siguieron la direcci?n de su mirada.
–Eso es rid?culo –protest?–. Se han vuelto locos?
–Usted fue Sherlock Holmes.
–Nadie fue Sherlock Holmes. Ese detective no existi? jam?s. Es una invenci?n literaria.
–Que usted encarn? de manera admirable.
–Pero fue en el cine. Nada tuvo que ver con la vida real. S?lo soy un actor.

Me contemplaban esperanzados, y lo cierto es que yo mismo empezaba a entrar en situaci?n, como si acabaran de encender los focos y oyese el suave rumor de una c?mara rodando. Aun as? decid? mantenerme silencioso, cruzados los dedos bajo el ment?n. No hab?a disfrutado tanto desde que rod? El perro de Baskerville.

Junio de 1960. Un temporal mantiene aisladas en la id?lica isla de Utakos, frente a Corf?, a nueve personas alojadas en el peque?o hotel local. Nada hace presagiar lo que est? a punto de ocurrir: Edith Mander, una discreta turista inglesa, aparece muerta en el pabell?n de la playa. Lo que parece un suicidio revela indicios imperceptibles para cualquiera salvo para Hopalong Basil, un actor en decadencia que en otro tiempo encarn? en la pantalla al m?s c?lebre detective de todos los tiempos. Nadie como ?l, acostumbrado a aplicar en el cine las habilidades deductivas de Sherlock Holmes, puede desentra?ar lo que de verdad esconde ese enigma cl?sico de habitaci?n cerrada. En una isla de la que nadie puede salir y a la que nadie puede llegar, inevitablemente todos se acabar?n convirtiendo en sospechosos en una fascinante novela-problema donde la literatura policial se mezcla de modo asombroso con la vida.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

THE NEW NOVEL BY ARTURO P?REZ-REVERTE

An impossible crime. An unlikely detective.

In addition to a race between killer and sleuth, The Final Problem is a duel of wits between authorand reader.

“We need a policeman,” someone suggested. “A detective.”
“We have one,” said Fox?.
Everyone followed the direction of his eyes.
“That’s ridiculous,” I protested. “Have you lost your minds?”
“You were Sherlock Holmes.”
“Nobody was Sherlock Holmes. He never existed. He’s a literary invention.”
“One that you played masterfully.”
“But that was in the movies. It had nothing to do with real life. I’m just an actor.”

They looked at me hopefully, and the truth is that I found myself getting into character, as if the lights had been flipped on and you could hear the soft whir of the camera rolling. But even so, I decided to keep quiet, my fingers crossed under my chin. I hadn’t had so much fun since the set of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

June 1960. A storm strands nine travelers at an inn on the idyllic island of Utakos, across from Corfu. No one has any premonition of what is about to happen: Edith Mander, a quiet English tourist, turns up dead in the beach pavilion. It looks like a suicide, but the scene contains a series of clues too subtle for anyone but the likes of Hopalong Basil, a washed-up actor who once played the most famous detective of all time on the silver screen. Having learned Sherlock Holmes’ deductive reasoning as part of the role, he is the only one capable of uncovering what really happened in this classic locked-room mystery. On an island cut off from the rest of the world by the storm, everyone is automatically a suspect in this fascinating novel-problem in which detective-fiction collides in surprising ways with real life.

Author: Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Alfaguara
Published: 09/19/2023
Pages: 328
Weight: 0.7lbs
Size: 9.69h x 5.75w x 0.79d
ISBN: 9781644739082
Language: Spanish