Not too long ago I finally got around to reading The Seville Communion, and I must admit that it made me want to read more of Arturo Perez-Reverte’s work.
The Flanders Panel is set in current day Madrid with our protagonist Julia, an art restorer, working on a painting that depicts a chess game from the fifteenth century, and a hidden message uncovered via x-rays that suggest that the match actually reveals who committed a murder several hundred years earlier. But on top of this, murders are taking place in contemporary Madrid, and they all seem tied into the same picture.
This is probably the only novel I’ve read that included chess positions in the text, and to be honest if you sit back and think about it too much, the plot is a little mad. But in a strange Umberto Eco manner, I really enjoyed it. So roll on the next one.