A paperback copy of this appeared mysteriously on my desk at work and I never did find out who left it there -- so to begin with, the novel had an aura of real life intrigue beyond the already swashbuckling story of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste in 17th century Spain. It's not annoyingly swashbuckling or adventurous, however, and has fine notes of dark humor and character throughout. In fact, when I first discovered the book I flipped through it and was hooked by this passage:
It was evident that he and his companion had seen death face to face, with no soft lights or heroic drumrolls, but in the dark, and nearly in the back, like rats in an alleyway and several leagues from anything resembling glory.
The original was published in 1996 and this is the Plume/Penguin 2005 translation. Arturo Pérez-Reverte is also quite interesting to follow on Twitter, if you habla español and enjoy Twitter being used in a fun and historical-literary way.
