I had high hopes for this one. Alas!

Flanders Panel opened up brilliantly and hooked me right in. The initial exploration of arts and history was captivating and promised a thrilling journey. Nonetheless, what started so promisingly culminates into a mundane anti-climax. You rarely see such a miserable finale. It's truly pathetic!

Without giving away any spoilers, I can't help but share a particularly foolish, absurd, and downright annoying inference from such a sublime and graceful game of Chess. Just hold your breaths and read this conversation between two characters:

“The mathematical aspect of chess,” he replied, unaffected by Julia’s ill humour, “gives the game a very particular character, something that specialists would define as anal sadistic. You know what I mean: chess as a silent battle between two men, evocative of terms such as aggression, narcissism, masturbation... and homosexuality. Winning equals conquering the dominant father or mother, placing oneself above them. Losing equals defeat, submission”...

That's just fucking blasphemous. I don't know what cheap drug Pérez-Reverte was on. Perhaps he was anally abused by some chess player and decided to blame chess for it. It's a travesty to reduce the beautiful game of chess to such baseless and offensive interpretations.

3 stars. I was really expecting much better.

Although I liked the writing of Reverte, the plot was just average.

The characters remained incomplete, there were quite a few gaps in the story, and generally speaking, while it could have left a really nice feeling because of its theme, in the end it didn't satisfy me.

I had high hopes for this work, but unfortunately it didn't quite live up to them.

The author has the potential to create something truly outstanding, but in this case, it seems that some aspects could have been further developed and refined.

Maybe with more attention to detail and a more comprehensive exploration of the characters and the story, the next work of Reverte will be able to achieve the excellence that I believe is within his reach.

In this work from the mid-1990s, the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez leads us into a world of mysteries that occur around an old painting by the artist Van Huys. This painting hides the clue to a possible murder.

It is a work full of intrigues and a rich language that will keep us on the edge of our seats from beginning to end. The story unfolds in a captivating way, with the author skillfully weaving together various elements to create a sense of mystery and suspense.

As we follow the protagonist's journey, we are drawn into a web of secrets and lies, not knowing what to expect next. The descriptions of the painting and the events that surround it are vivid and detailed, making it easy for the reader to imagine the scenes in their mind's eye.

Overall, this is a must-read for anyone who loves mystery and intrigue. It will keep you guessing until the very end and leave you wanting more.

OMG!! This book will be my favorite book of the year!!!

It's a cyber investigation case that transcends both space and time.

Have you ever admired a famous painting and then suddenly had a craving to understand how the characters in the painting ended up? For those who are curious (like me), they must have had that crazy thought!

Julia, an art restorationist, receives the painting "The Chess Game" by the famous artist Van Huys, along with a mysterious message that the artist has cleverly hidden in the painting and no one has discovered - until five centuries later: "Qvis Necavit Eqvitem? - Who killed the knight?". Why did Van Huys leave this sentence on his painting and then try to hide it?

The answer to this question lies in the unfinished chess game in the painting. The "knight" in the message has two meanings: one is the knight in the chess game, and the other is the honorable upright knight sitting on the left in the painting. Julia decides to team up with two of her friends - the foster father who owns an antique art shop and a professional thief - to uncover the past of the "The Chess Game", go back to France five hundred years ago to find the murderer who assassinated the knight.

The three of them reconstructed the chess game in an unusual way: playing the moves backwards to find out which piece was the last one to "take/kill" the knight. They thought that after finding the key piece and identifying the person who assassinated the knight, everything would be over. But everything is no longer just a simple search for the mystery of the painting.

A figure lurking in the darkness appears, challenging Julia's group after killing two of her friends. He sends the group clues along with a strange request: from now on, both sides must continue to play the chess game still unfinished in the painting to determine who is the winner. One side is Julia's group playing the white pieces, and he - the murderer - will make the moves of the black pieces. After playing a big round of the chess game backwards, now they have to play until the end. A thrilling battle of wits between the two sides, as the three of them get more and more involved, they realize that each of them has become a representative of each chess piece in this battle: a bishop, a knight, and a white queen. And who will be the next one to be "taken" on the chessboard close to death?

This is a very strange mystery novel! It is completely related to chess. Each move will determine the fate of Julia's group, whether they live or die. The special feature of this story is that the chess game in the painting becomes the key clue to find the murderer in the past and the present. By reading this book, I also learned some basic knowledge about chess, which is quite interesting.

The painting in the Flemish style contains many hidden spaces, as if encompassing the real world where Julia's group is standing, making the cases seem to be connected and intertwined with each other to form a drama that transcends time and space. When the drama reaches its conclusion and the villain is revealed - a plot twist that I didn't expect! - the chess game seems to have to yield to reality.

I really like those mystery novels that delve into the knowledge and mysterious clues about art (especially in the Middle Ages), like those of Dan Brown or "The Da Vinci Code", so for me, this book has awakened all my interests. Reading and pondering the painting and the chess game at the same time is really an indescribable pleasure! The way the space is nested within the space, and the real people seem to be drawn into the tragic drama in the painting, living with the characters in it, as if time has stopped, bringing everything back to the 15th century, to the Renaissance, where the art schools were flourishing, before all the tragedies began, that feeling is exactly what I like most about this book!

An extremely excellent Spanish masterpiece!! For me now, it is firmly at the top of my favorite books list. Angels and Demons have officially given way to it! :P

\\n  The white pieces and the black pieces seem to represent the opposition between light and darkness, good and evil in the human soul\\n

\\n  Human beings are not born to solve the problems of the world, but simply to discover where those problems lie\\n

I knew without a doubt that I was going to fall in love with this book the moment I learned about its captivating premise. An art restorer stumbles upon a hidden message within a 500-year-old painting, one that is intricately linked to a medieval assassination that occurred half a century before. What's more, the entire premise of the painting, and the subsequent murder mystery that unfolds, revolves around the game of chess. And to top it all off, the first epigraph of Chapter 1 is a profound and thought-provoking quote from Jorge Luis Borges:

God moves the player, he in turn the piece.
But what god beyond God begins the round
Of dust and time and sleep and agonies?
— Jorge Luis Borges

Oh! And let's not forget that the story takes place in the beautiful country of Spain, specifically in Madrid, and often in or near the renowned Museo del Prado.

This book was an absolute page-turner, and I found myself completely enthralled, reading it from cover to cover in just one day. The pace was rapid and exciting, keeping me on the edge of my seat and with no hesitation to continue reading and reading. The characters and the plot were masterfully intertwined, fitting together like the pieces of a chess game. I found myself actively engaging with the clues, trying to solve the mystery along with the protagonist. The inclusion of illustrations of the chess game in the book was a brilliant touch, and I highly recommend reading the physical copy rather than listening to the audio version. The story was multi-layered, yet it wasn't as overly meticulous or intellectually taxing as some of the mystery novels I've been reading lately. This made the novel both fun and adventurous, while still maintaining a level of intelligence and cleverness. In fact, I had to take a break from another book I was reading simultaneously because it had become a bit exhausting, and this book served as a wonderful diversion that still kept my brain actively thinking. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an engaging and entertaining read.

In my personal perception, this work is even better than "The Dumas Club" - the novel that made the reputation of the Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Without two main storylines running parallel, without the woodcut paintings with the shadowy images of the tarot cards full of mystery, "The Secret of the Black Queen" remains faithful to a single main storyline, delving deep into the world of chess full of wisdom and obsession, creating a no less mysterious detective novel. The mystery comes from the crazy thoughts of the criminal and the deadly game he has carefully prepared.

The story begins when Julia, an antique restorer, is tasked with restoring the famous painting "The Chess Game" by the Flemish painter Pieter Van Huys, painted in 1471. Hidden beneath the layer of paint, Julia discovers a hidden Latin inscription that conceals a painful secret from 500 years ago: "Quis necavit equitem?", which means "Who killed the knight?". Facing this open-ended and challenging question, Julia, together with César - an antique dealer, her patron and caregiver, and Mrs. Menchu Roch - an antique painting broker who is always accompanied by handsome young men, has to seek the help of Professor Alvaro, and later, the genius Munoz - an ordinary accountant but also a top-notch chess player, in order to decrypt the message of the painting and find the answer to the secret question that Pieter Van Huys has carefully hidden in the heart of the painting.

With the help of Alvaro, Julia learns that the two chess players sitting opposite each other in the painting "The Chess Game" are Ferdinand, the Duke of Ostenburg, and Roger de Arras, a knight of this kingdom who once clashed with the French army in the war against the English launched by King Charles VII of France. The other character, the missing woman in the black dress, sitting in a corner, holding the poetry collection "Poems about Roses and Knights" in her hand, as if lost in the book, is Beatrice of Burgundy - the wife of Duke Ferdinand. The more Julia delves into history, into what happened between these three people in the past, the more she is drawn into events with political overtones and a love triangle that ends in tragedy.

That was a time when both Ostenburg and Burgundy were small kingdoms within the sight of the French king. In Ostenburg, there were two factions: one side advocated pro-France, represented by the knight Roger de Arras; the other side wanted to merge Ostenburg and Burgundy into a unified system, a force strong enough to resist the ambitious invasion plans of the glorious French kingdom. The merger was initially achieved through a political marriage between Ferdinand and Beatrice to strengthen the alliance between the two sides. Of course, being married for political purposes, Beatrice did not give her love to her husband. Instead, unfortunately, that love was given to Roger de Arras, to the friend of Ferdinand, to the man on the pro-French side, who only walked beside the bridal procession on the day she got married, and to the knight who was finally brutally assassinated by an arrow through the chest.

Roger de Arras is the knight who was killed, the knight who was sacrificed on the chessboard. And the identity of the killer is revealed by the painting itself. The more Julia delves deeper, the more she devotes herself to deciphering the messages hidden in the painting, the more she discovers different levels of space, allowing her to travel back in time, reflect on what she knows about the动荡 and阴谋-ridden era in Flanders, and participate in the bloody tragedy and the complicated love triangle that ended in grief.

The passages where Munoz escapes from the dull and painful office worker appearance and fully lives up to his passion and superior chess thinking, gradually coming up with the final answer to the question "Who killed the knight?" through analysis, retrieval, and sharp inferences about the chess pieces, are the best parts of the work. It is fascinating and beautiful, obsessive and addictive, just like what a chess master feels about this intellectual sport. Although I am a person who doesn't know how to play chess and can hardly understand the moves and squares that Munoz mentions, I still feel an irresistible attraction to the thinking, analysis, and inferences of this chess master.

However, finding the answer is only half the way because of the appearance of a fourth chess player, who seems to use the painting "The Chess Game" as an excuse for a deadly challenge. Julia, César, Mrs. Menchu, and even Munoz suddenly become chess pieces in a crazy game set up by the criminal, continuing the ancient chess game. The criminal hides the black queen, sends Julia white cards with his moves written on them, moves that represent real-life killing strategies. At the same time, cruel deaths occur one after another. Among these deaths is the figure of a blonde woman, always wearing a raincoat, whom Julia suspects is the criminal; and the appearance of a dark green Ford car that seems to follow Julia everywhere.

Amid the ineffective help of the police, Julia, César, and Munoz are forced to join the criminal's chess game, have to make the moves for the white pieces while inferring and predicting the next move of the hidden chess master on the black side, and at the same time, have to conduct their own investigations and put forward hypotheses about the identity of the murderer. In the end, only the thinking of an experienced chess player like Munoz can lead to the answer to the current tragedy, can shed light on the identity of the person hiding the black queen and causing a series of terrifying murders. That is the person whom neither Julia nor, I'm sure, all the readers can expect, the person who, because of his blind love for Julia - the white queen - has carefully planned a conspiracy to free her from those whom he believes have been and are harming her life.

Besides being an exciting detective novel set in the present with a connection to events in the past, in the style of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, "The Secret of the Black Queen" also captivates readers with its poetic passages, reflecting Julia's view and perception of the historical love triangle, especially of the character Beatrice of Burgundy, with the lines of poetry that contain the inner thoughts as if they were Roger de Arras' words to her:

  "Dear lady, the dewdrops
at dawn
fall on the roses
in the garden full of your salty tears
and fall onto the battlefield
like drops of blood
on my heart
on my eyes, on my sword."

And there is also a Beatrice of Burgundy who bows her head over the poetry collection in her hand, but in fact, her mind and eyes are on the fateful chess game, and the sad and beautiful melody of the unexpected poetry suddenly shines in her soul:

  "The music mingles with the whispers of the two chess players who are obsessed with the chess game, and suddenly the noble lady recognizes a heartbreaking beauty in the lines of the poem that is trembling in her hand. Also born from the dewdrops that have fallen on the rose and the sword of the knight, a shining tear appears in the blue eyes of the Duchess when she looks up and meets the gaze of Julia, who is quietly watching in the darkness. And the Duchess thinks that the gaze of the young girl with the dark Italian eyes is just a reflection of her own eyes, motionless and sad, hazy on the surface of a distant mirror."

Then there are the detailed and in-depth analyses of the music of the famous German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, of the way he likes to reverse the notes of his music to create different wonderful melodies; of whether there is always a way for us to solve all the mysteries of this world, or whether humans are always limited by some kind of superhuman force. All of this is presented through the philosophical discussions between Munoz and the old man Belmonte - the owner of the painting "The Chess Game", making "The Secret of the Black Queen" both fascinating for its chess-playing thinking and logical reasoning, and intoxicating for the beauty of music, science, and literature. In the end, what more can we ask for from a novel like this?... Simply an addictive book.

My friend Cathy, who is also a chessplayer, told me that I simply had to read this book. And she was indeed right.

Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down and finished it in about a day. It's truly an amazing piece of work.

Well, what exactly is it? I read it as a kind of postmodernist reimagining of Alice Through The Looking-Glass.

Other books that immediately came to my mind while reading this were The Name of the Rose, Gödel, Escher, Bach and Luzhin's Defense.

Formally, it's a very stylized murder mystery. Julia, the sexy yet childlike Alice figure, is a Madrid art restorer. She receives an unusual commission, a 15th century painting of a chess game.

There are multiple layers of reference in this painting. Two of the people in the painting are playing chess, while the third one, a mysterious lady in black, watches.

But they are also identified with the pieces, as it turns out that the picture contains a hidden message about the relationships between them, coded in the position of the game itself.

This in turn is reflected in the mirror shown on one side of the painting.

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)

It is truly one of the most intelligent thrillers that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

The game of chess that is five hundred years old, emerging from an old painting, seems to come alive right before our eyes.

The ancient mystery, intertwined with romance and murder, is enchanting on the canvas and then mirrored in reality.

It creates a captivating atmosphere that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

As the story unfolds, layer by layer, we are drawn deeper into this world of mystery and intrigue.

And yet, only one question remains: who killed the Knight?

This question haunts the reader, driving them to turn the pages, eager to discover the truth and解开这个古老谜题的面纱.

The author has masterfully crafted a tale that combines history, mystery, and romance in a way that is both engaging and thought-provoking.

It is a must-read for anyone who loves a good thriller and enjoys delving into the depths of the human psyche and the mysteries of the past.

I read this book almost 16 years ago, and yet I still vividly remember the sense of fascination that gripped me afterwards.

For me, during the '90s - '00s era, if one hadn't read a book by Mr Reverte, they simply couldn't have the slightest inkling about his remarkable writing skills.

His ability to craft stories that are both engaging and thought-provoking is truly a marvel.

I wholeheartedly recommend this particular book to anyone who has a passion for art and mystery.

It is especially captivating when these two elements are so skillfully intertwined within the pages of a book.

The way he weaves the narrative, creating an atmosphere of intrigue and suspense, is simply masterful.

Whether you are a seasoned reader or just beginning to explore the world of literature, this book is sure to leave a lasting impression.

So, if you're looking for a captivating read that will transport you to a world of art and mystery, give this book a try.

You won't be disappointed.

This is the first work that I have read from this author. It is a good read with large doses of intrigue.

The story immediately grabs your attention and keeps you engaged throughout. The author has done a great job of creating a mysterious and captivating atmosphere.

The characters are well-developed and the plot is full of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

Overall, I give it an 8/10 rating for its engaging story, well-developed characters, and masterful use of intrigue.

I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Just one word: great.

This simple word holds a world of meaning. It can describe something that is excellent, outstanding, or remarkable. It can refer to a person's qualities, such as being kind, intelligent, or brave. It can also describe an experience, like a great adventure or a great achievement.

The word "great" has the power to inspire and motivate us. When we hear it, we might think of our own goals and dreams, and feel encouraged to pursue them. It can give us the confidence to take risks and try new things, knowing that we have the potential to achieve something great.

In conclusion, although it is just one word, "great" has a profound impact on our lives. It reminds us to strive for excellence, to believe in ourselves, and to always look for the good in everything.

A crime novel that once took me on a trip to Spain during my vacation - that sounded appealing. However, already on the first few pages, I felt that it was poorly and clichédly written. Women are beautiful, men act macho... This impression was strengthened as I flipped through and read here and there. No, I can't stand it!

I wanted to give the plot a chance at least through the movie adaptation with less time investment, and I'm afraid it's even worse than the book. At least in the dubbed version, Kate Beckingsale whispers in an innocent child's voice, while the men constantly grunt, flirt, and wink.

It's hard to bear. And it's a pity because one could have simply told a good crime novel. So no rating, but a reading and viewing warning!