Spanish books, yo te quiero infinito

Ok, maybe not infinito. One of the nice things about translated books is that not only have they made the grade in their own country, but someone thinks they are worth the time to be translated into other languages. I've noticed quite a few good books coming out of Spain in the last few years. Arturo Perez Reverte has produced a number of literary thrillers and also writes a historical fiction series. Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind is a delight, one of the best of the mournful literary thrillers. And while I didn't love Albert Sanchez Pinol's Cold Skin, it is one of the most intelligent horror novels to emerge in years.

So with all of this, I was excited to read Zig Zag by Jose Carlos Somoza. It's a thriller in the Crichton style, taking a bleeding edge idea, in this case, string theory, and describe the peril of going a bit too fast into the unknown. The books starts in 2015 with a lonely scientist who is a tad too smart to be at her provincial university. It turns out she is hiding in more ways than one from the results of 2005 experiment.

The first 2/3 or even 4/5 of the book are great fun. Slowly we learn what really happened on the island and why the surviving scientists are so frightened. Somoza flips back and forth in time, which keeps the story moving nicely. In addition to the scientific quest, we have a political intrigue subplot that keeps you guessing. Despite being long at 500 pages, the book moves quickly. Unfortunately the last bit stalls.

Like nearly every thriller you can read, the end is a let down. Yes, we learn what happen. If you read the information on string theory Somoza provides it will be better as he manages to tie it into the resolution quite well. I have no idea if he represented it correctly, but it makes internal sense. Without revealing the ending, it is nothing you haven't read (or perhaps seen) a few times before. There is a lot here to like, although there was quite a bit more in his Athenian Murders, so I will continue to keep my eye on Somoza.