The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This is the prequel to The Shadow of The Wind and tells the story of a Spanish novelist whose talents come to the attention of a mysterious man referred to as 'the boss'. The boss gives the novelist (David Martin) a strange commission but although Martin is compliant to begin with he soon becomes suspicious of the boss' morality and motives. As people around Martin begin to be murdered he comes under suspicion by the police and the identity of the boss is questioned.

I didn't enjoy this book. It is very supernatural and everything is left unexplained. There are just too many things which don't make any sense so instead of being intrigued by the mystery it is just confusing and bizarre. For example, Martin recovers from a terminal illness (a tumor) following a dream involving spiders, the boss constantly eats sugarlumps and Martin discovers a basement of wooden lifesize puppets of himself and all his friends in the basement of the boss' house. None of these things is ever explained, just dropped inexplicably into the narrative.

It is a very quick read but personally I wouldn't bother. Despite all the twists and turns this book is pretty boring because the narrative thread is impossible to follow.