The Fencing Master

A brilliantly compelling historical mystery, set in nineteenth-century Spain.

You will want to reach the book's nearly perfect ending in a single sitting

The author is in the best sense a romantic and to read him is to rediscover the delights of Dumas and Conan Doyle

As assured and elegant as Don Jaime's sword thrusts

A delight... the thriller as it out to be

Arturo Perez-Reverte was born in Cartagena in 1951. Since the publication of The Fencing Master, his first novel, Perez-Reverte has become one of Europe's bestselling authors. The Flanders Panel was awarded the Grand Prix Annuel de Litterature Policiere in France. His novel, The Dumas Club, has been made into the film The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.

Fencing is not a game but a science. The outcome is invariably the same: triumph or disaster, life or death... 
 
It is 1868; Spain teeters on the brink of revolution. Jaime Astarloa is a master-fencer of the old school, priding himself on the precision, dignity and honour of his ancient art; his friends spend their days in cafes discussing plots at court, but Jaime's obsession is to perfect the irresistible sword thrust. Then Adela de Otero, violet-eyed and enigmatic, appears at his door. When Jaime takes her on as a pupil he finds himself embroiled in dark political intrigues against which his old-fashioned values are no protection.

The Flanders Panel

A brilliant murder mystery in which a clue to a murder is hidden within a medieval painting.

A sleek and sophisticated chamber mystery about art, life and chess. Madly clever

Gives murder a touch of class...delightfully absorbing

In its intellectual background detail it is reminiscent of Umberto Eco's novels...hard to stop reading

Arturo Pérez-Reverte was born in Cartagena in 1951. Since the publication of The Fencing Master, his first novel, Perez-Reverte has become one of Europe's bestselling authors. The Flanders Panel was awarded the Grand Prix Annuel de Litterature Policiere in France. His novel, The Dumas Club, has been made into the film The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.

The clue to a murder in the art world of contemporary Madrid lies hidden in a medieval painting of a game of chess. 
 
In a 15th-century Flemish painting two noblemen are pictured playing chess. Yet two years before he could sit for the portrait, one of them was murdered. In 20th-century Madrid, Julia, a picture restorer preparing the painting for auction, uncovers a hidden inscription in Latin that points to the crime: Quis necavit equitem? Who killed the knight? But as she teams up with a brilliant chess theoretician to retrace the moves, she discovers the deadly game is not yet over.

The Seville Communion

An intriguing, absorbing noir mystery about murders in a tiny church in Seville that draw the attention of the Vatican.

Recounted with panache and subtlety, The Seville Communion is one of those infrequent whodunnits that transcend the genre

A beautifully and intricately written noir in which unique plots and counterplots abound

Arturo Pérez-Reverte was born in Cartagena in 1951. Since the publication of The Fencing Master, his first novel, Pérez-Reverte has become one of Europe's bestselling authors. The Flanders Panel was awarded the Grand Prix Annuel de Litterature Policiere in France. His novel, The Dumas Club, has been made into the film The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.

Murderous goings-on in a tiny church draw the Vatican into the dark heart of Seville. A hacker gets into the Pope's personal computer to leave a warning about mysterious deaths in a small church in Seville that is threatened with demolition. 
 
Father Quart, a suave Vatican troubleshooter is sent to investigate. Experience has taught him to deal with enemies of the Church in all their guises, but nothing has prepared him for the stubborn faith of Father Ferro, or the appeal of the lovely Macarena Bruner, desperate to save the church and her ancestors from her ex-husband, the ruthless banker Pencho Gavira. As Quart is drawn into an intrigue as labyrinthine as the streets of Seville, soon more than his vocation is in danger.

Arturo Peréz-Reverte

A dizzyingly complicated, dazzlingly allusive, breathlessly exciting novel of adventure and detection

A noir meta-fiction. Even a reader armed with a Latin dictionary and a copy of The Three Musketeers cannot anticipate the thrilling twists of this Escher-like mystery

A sophisticated and exciting intellectual game which brilliantly illustrates the sheer delight of fiction

A rip-roaring entertainment - tongue in cheek and sword in hand

The Dumas Club

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Arturo Peréz-Reverte

Praise for The Dumas Club

A dizzyingly complicated, dazzlingly allusive, breathlessly exciting novel of adventure and detection

A noir meta-fiction. Even a reader armed with a Latin dictionary and a copy of The Three Musketeers cannot anticipate the thrilling twists of this Escher-like mystery

A sophisticated and exciting intellectual game which brilliantly illustrates the sheer delight of fiction

A dizzyingly complicated, dazzlingly allusive, breathlessly exciting novel of adventure and detection

A noir meta-fiction. Even a reader armed with a Latin dictionary and a copy of The Three Musketeers cannot anticipate the thrilling twists of this Escher-like mystery

A sophisticated and exciting intellectual game which brilliantly illustrates the sheer delight of fiction

A dizzyingly complicated, dazzlingly allusive, breathlessly exciting novel of adventure and detection

A noir meta-fiction. Even a reader armed with a Latin dictionary and a copy of The Three Musketeers cannot anticipate the thrilling twists of this Escher-like mystery

A sophisticated and exciting intellectual game which brilliantly illustrates the sheer delight of fiction

Books by Arturo Peréz-Reverte

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter