In the second of his novels to be translated from the Spanish, Carlos Ruiz Zafon revisits his The Shadow of the Wind creation; The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is a treasure trove of prohibited and secret manuscripts which have been hidden until someone chooses one, takes it home- a book that in fact chooses them, is a part of them and says something about who they are. It is a cyclical action- one must deposit a book before taking another- they are passed from one anonymous owner to the next. For Zafon each book seems to possess the owner, and it is this binding relationship of readership that preoccupies the author throughout the novel.

The Angel’s Game draws upon this theme; the power of books to change people, to shape personality, and finally to corrupt. David Martin is a poor writer who wishes to be a successful literary author but makes his money writing pulp, sensation novels for a pair of corrupt publishers. Here Zafon draws upon his own tradition, that of the mystery thriller, slyly entrapping his protagonist within the confines of his own genre. When his literary debut is a failure, Martin turns to the sinister Andreas Corelli (an admirer of his work) who will pay Martin vast amounts to write a book for him, a book that will change the hearts and minds of the people who read it. Martin is consumed by this new task, writing what seems to be a new religious doctrine for the devil himself.

Eaten away by greed and corruption, Martin become sick, withdraws from those who are trying to help him and is pulled into the plot which surrounds the mysterious Corelli. The novel then takes the form of one of Martin’s sensationalist mystery stories, as we delve further into the crimes and passions at the heart of the novel. After a series of murders connected to Corelli and Martin, Martin becomes further withdrawn as he struggles with his conscience and his need to write a successful book, at any cost. The more he struggles to write Corelli’s manuscript, the sicker he becomes, the doctrine seems to be consuming not only his energy, and his health, but his entire self.

As Martin struggles to escape Corelli, and his project, Zafon seems to be suggesting the all consuming power of writing and stories, almost a caution against reading too much mystery fiction. Zafon cleverly entwines the fates of his protagonist and his work, mirroring the echo of disease at the heart of the great mysteries of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. He is a writer deeply aware of his predecessors and his take on the genre is not without irony and careful manipulation. However The Angel’s Game, lacks the clever ending of The Shadow of the Wind, and with its convoluted twists and subplots, ultimately fails when Martin descends into possible madness.

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