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Summary and Reviews of Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte

Captain Alatriste

by Arturo Perez-Reverte
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  • Critics' Consensus (6):
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  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2005, 272 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Dec 2005, 304 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

The first in a new series by the author of The Club Dumas , set in 17th Century Spain. Captain Alatristee earns his living as a swordsman-for-hire, but when he's commissioned to murder two travelers by a member of the Spanish Inquisition he finds himself involved in a plot with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe.

The first in a magnificent series of five historical novels from the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Club Dumas and The Queen of the South.

Captain Alatriste is the story of a fictional seventeenth-century Spanish soldier who, after being wounded in battle during the Thirty Years' War, is forced to retire from the army. Now he lives the comparatively tame - though hardly quiet - life of a swordsman-for-hire in Madrid. Approached with an offer of work, Alatriste is told to go with another hired blade to an unfamiliar part of the city at midnight and wait. They are received by men who explain that they want Alatriste and his companion to ambush two travelers the following evening, stage a robbery, and give the men a fright. "No blood," they are told.

But then a third figure enters the room. He says the job requires some clarification: he increases the pay, and tells them that, instead, they must murder the two travelers. Then he reveals his identity: Emilio Bocanegra. It is a name synonymous with the Spanish Inquisition, the bloodiest name in Europe. This is a man whose requests cannot be denied.

But the following night, with the attack imminent, it becomes clear to Alatriste that these aren't ordinary travelers. And what happens next is only the first in a series of riveting twists and turns, with implications that will reverberate throughout the courts of Europe.

For anyone who loves the work of Arturo Pérez-Reverte-and those who have not yet discovered the delights of this extraordinary writer - Captain Alatriste is one of the most stylish, singular pleasures to come along in years.

First published in Spanish in 1996, published in English in 2005.

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

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Beyond the Book



For those who are interested in such things, from piecing together a few words from the author's website in Spanish it looks to me as if the original series order is:

1. El capitán Alatriste/Captain Alatriste
2. Limpieza de Sangre/The Purity of Blood (Jan 2006)
3. Patente de Corso/The Sign of The Marque*
4. El Sol de Breda/The Sun of Breda
5. El Oro del Rey/The Gold of the King*

The Purity of Blood
and The Sun of Breda are scheduled for publication in English in 2006. I have no information on when/if volumes 2 and 5 will be published.

*
...

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