In 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists bombed Barcelona, killing thousands of civilians.
Alicia Gris, nine years old, was one of the survivors.
Now an orphan with a painful injury, all Alicia has left from the bombings is a vague memory of the man who saved her life and a dream about a building filled with books.
Twenty years later, Alicia is living in Madrid and trying to escape a life working for the secret police. In exchange for her freedom, her boss convinces her to take on one final case that involves the suspicious disappearance of Spain’s minister of culture, Mauricio Valls.
Following the clue of a rare book found hidden in Valls’ desk, Alicia and her partner, Juan Manuel Vargas, are swept back to Barcelona.
There, in a twisted and dangerous race against time, they are forced to revisit the corruption of the Civil War and face their own pasts as they discover a plot of murder and kidnapping that spans decades.
The Labyrinth of the Spirits, the fourth and final volume of Carlos Ruiz Zafón‘s Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, draws the reader in as it moves between Alicia and Vargas’ investigation, Valls’ captivity and the unknown players who stay in the shadows until the final reveal.
This book kept me guessing until the end — and stayed with me long after I was done.
