In the international art circuit is booming call hiperdramática painting, which involves the use of human models as canvasses. Anneke's murder, a girl of fourteen who worked as a picture in the book "Defloration" in Vienna, warned the police and the Ministry of Interior Austrians, who are pressured by the powerful Tysch Foundation are not to do public on crime, since the news trigger panic among their models and distrust between buyers hiperdramática paint. Meanwhile, Clara Reyes, who works as a canvas in a gallery in Madrid is visited by two foreign men who intend to participate in a work of a "hard and risky," the challenge begins at the same time of the offer, since the model should be carved also psychologically. Thus, Clara enters a spiral of fear and fascination, which also involves the reader and it faces a crucial debate on the value of art and of human life itself.
Jose Carlos Somoza is an author who did not know until recently. Correction. He had seen his books, with covers such as elegant and never had that name and those related issues with mystery, horror or fantasy. Interestingly it was not until recently I saw his last work, "bait" that has nothing to do with the eponymous film (and encouraged) by Ladislao Vajda. This book looks and a cover more in keeping with the genre dealing with Somoza. Soon, I discovered that the director of horror / fantasy Jaume Balagueró had prepared a project based on a novel by Somoza, called "The lady number 13." Wasting no time, I went to my library of confidence and grabbed a couple of books of this intriguing writer.
From "The lady number 13", which excited me less, I can not say much, looks like a cross between King and "The DaVinci Code." Somoza's style is already apparent delicate and descriptive with a significant passage from a purely formal point of view, but very far from dazzling. "The lady ..." putting them have any tie-scene and its premise is curious, but not just materialize the proposal, leaving a deli taste half bad tasted.
a little better, however, is "Clara and the shadows." Here the author is absolutely committed to the world that created and narrates: an alternative 2005, where humans have developed the profession of living art. The compelling and eye-catching "Clara y la penumbra" is the detail with establishing the alibi of all that artistic movement. Somoza creates trends and currents, idiosyncrasies and psychologies of the human canvas and the artists who recreate and writes about it with the certainty of being the expert in a subject invented. And the language used, much richer than "The lady number 13" is worked from the same pictorial themes: Somoza makes his words are literally immersed in oil.
Although the crux of the story is accompanied by a cover of more conventional police (in general, all part of "mystery" does not go much beyond the classic "pursuit of the psychopath"), "Clara y la penumbra" is an artistic-existential thriller that reflects on themes extrapolated to other fields and has a surprisingly fresh narrative where the characters and the background on that move, not always indistinguishable.
a work that fulfills its dual mission: to entertain and meet. After "Clara y la penumbra" do not be surprised if you're looking for more books Somoza. I am now ready to "bait."
