‘Memorable’, ‘haunting’ and ‘compelling’ are three words I’d use to describe Carlos Ruiz Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind. His new offering, The Angel’s Game, is a similarly haunting book, and one that I was determined to read in one sitting. And I did; I was sucked straight in to this riveting story. A prequel to the hugely successful The Shadow of the Wind, the events of this novel are once more focused on books, writers, love, loss and tragedy.

Zafon deftly weaves this new story which follows the character David Martin, a gifted writer with an unfortunate past. A visit to the (beautifully described) Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinthine library of orphaned tomes (for me reminiscent of Piranesi’s drawings) sets in motion a chain of events of Faustian magnitude, where the sinister figure of Andreas Corelli looms over Martin, and in which torrid memories and truths are brought to the surface.

This is a great piece of writing from an extremely talented author. I’d been looking forward to reading this novel for some time now and I wasn’t disappointed. The dramatic climax, which ties all the strings of the plot together, is masterful. A must-read.