content: I had really grown to enjoy Perez-Reverte's books after first reading some of his other stories such as the Fencing Master, the Flander's Panel, and the Queen of the South. I thought I'd gotten a good bargain by purchasing this book at $.45, but sometimes it's better to hang on to loose change. In this book, the plot was weak from beginning to end, and the climax was unrealistic, even with a stretch of the imagination. I was completely disinterested in the characters whom for the most part were unlikeable, anyway. On several occasions I thought about putting the book down, and had I not been spending a week on the beach with not much else to do, I probably would have. This book gave me the impression that the author was simply trying to fulfill his contract with the publisher to write a certain number of books, regardless of quality, before a certain date.