The Angel's Game: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hardly surprising given that its author is Carlos Ruiz Zafón whose previous novel was bestselling The Shadow Of The Wind.

Set in post-war Barcelona this magical mystery is the most successful book in Spanish publishing history after Don Quixote.

Zafón intended The Angel’s Game to take place within the same “fictional universe” as its predecessor.

He describes the gothic series – to include a further two novels – as a “labyrinth of fictions”, where the same characters are encountered and where plots and subplots are tangled up.

So we return to the Cemetery of the Forgotten Books and the antiquated Sempere & Son bookshop, except that we’ve gone back in time 25 years.

The narrator David Martin is a journalist on a Barcelona newspaper. His career takes off after the editor commissions a series of short stories.

Before long David finds himself tied in to a publishing deal, writing trashy horror stories under a pseudonym. Then death looms when he is diagnosed with a brain tumour.

He locks himself away with his work in an abandoned mansion. Battling on he crosses paths with Andreas Corelli, an illusive French publisher. Corelli heaps praise on David and makes him an irresistible offer.

He must write a book that has the power to change hearts and minds and establish a new religion. He will be paid a fortune in return… perhaps there’ll also be a miraculous recovery.

But professional commitments crush his spirits and his writing mentor marries the girl he loves.

Edging closer to despair David discovers some old letters and photographs, which reveal a startling connection between his life and that of the house’s former inhabitant.

As he tries to unravel the mystery people disappear, blazes break out, the police come knocking and eventually David’s life mirrors his own pulp fiction.

One never escapes the sense of déjà-vu in The Angel’s Game and it leaves one wondering whether Zafón’s “fictional universe” is up to producing another two novels. On the whole the characters are sketchily drawn and the Faustian plot a little tired.

But perhaps that doesn’t matter. A lucrative Hollywood deal is probably just around the corner as Zafón is a former screenwriter and it shows. The Angel’s Game starts off as an intelligent literary thriller but morphs into action-packed adventure with a hefty body count.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £18.99