From The Sunday Times
May 4, 2008

Crime round up
The Sunday Times reviews by Joan Smith

Crime novelists are sometimes asked if they could ever commit a murder themselves; nobody is more qualified, in theory at least, to come up with the perfect crime. The Argentinian writer Guillermo Martinez, whose first novel, The Oxford Murders, has just been made into a film with John Hurt and Elijah Wood, is clearly intrigued by the idea; his new novel, The Book of Murder (Abacus £10.99, translated by Sonia Soto), asks teasing questions about authorship and the relation between fiction and real life.
His narrator is a struggling writer who has enviously observed the career of Kloster, a much more successful author, with whom he once briefly shared a secretary called Luciana. Years later, Luciana calls the narrator out of the blue and tells him a scarcely believable story about Kloster murdering her relatives in a demonic act of revenge. It began, she says, when she sued Kloster for sexual harassment, unintentionally bringing about the death of his only child. Since then, Luciana's fiancé, parents and brother have died in bizarre circumstances and she fears that her younger sister will be next. The narrator doesn't really believe Luciana but agrees to act as an intermediary. His pretext for contacting Kloster is that he is writing a novel based on these events but then his old rival makes exactly the same claim, plunging readers into a state of uncertainty about whose text they have in their hands.

This is a clever, chilling novel that takes crime writing to a new level.

For further brief reviews by Joan Smith of the following titles go to the Sunday Times website via this link:

Dog Eats Dog - Iain Levison - Bitter Lemon Press

The Girl of his Dreams - Donna Leon - Heinemann

The Patience of the Spider - Andrea Camilleri - Picador

The Natural Disorder of Things - Andrea Carnobbio - Quercus

Out of a Clear Sky - Sally Hichcliffe - Macmillan

White Nights - Ann Cleeves - Macmillan

Perfect Family - Pam Lewis - Headline