• The Horseman's Song
1 1

The Horseman's Song

$14.95
$14.95 $14.95
Sold out
Spain, summer 1937, the civil war rages. A Wehrmacht officer assigned to Franco’s Spanish Foreign Legion investigates the murder of the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, as does his opponent, an America...
Read More
  • 10 March 2019
View Product Details
Spain, summer 1937. The civil war between Spanish nationalists and republicans rages. On the bloody sierras of Aragon, among Generalissimo Franco’s volunteers is Martin Bora, the twenty-something German officer and detective whose future adventures will be told in Lumen, Liar Moon, The Road to Ithaca and others in the Bora series.

Presently a lieutenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion, Bora lives the tragedy around him as an intoxicating epic, between idealism and youthful recklessness.

The first doubts, however, rise in Bora’ s mind when he happens on the body of Federico Garcia Lorca, a brilliant poet, progressive and homosexual. Who murdered him? Why? The official version does not convince Bora, who begins a perilous investigation. His inquiry paradoxically proceeds alongside that which is being carried out by an “enemy”: Philip Walton, an American member of the International Brigades. Soon enough the German and the New Englander will join forces, and their cooperation will not only culminate in a thrilling chase after a murderer, but also in a very human, existential face-to-face between two adversaries forever changed by their crime-solving encounter...

files/i.png Icon
Price: $14.95
Pages: 376
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
Imprint: Bitter Lemon Press
Series: Martin Bora
Publication Date: 10 March 2019
Trim Size: 7.80 X 5.10 in
ISBN: 9781912242115
Format: Paperback
REVIEWS Icon

Publishers Weekly Starred Review: Set in 1937, Pastor’s outstanding sixth mystery featuring German investigator Martin Bora (after 2017’s The Road to Ithaca) makes effective use of the death of Federico García Lorca, the celebrated poet, during the Spanish Civil War…Pastor does an excellent job of creating a back-story for her lead that fits in well with the previous books.

Midwestern Book Review: An expertly crafted mystery by a master of the genre, that is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.95), "The Horseman's Song" is an especially recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections. Also very highly recommended for dedicated mystery buffs are the other novels by Ben Pastor that feature the character of Martin Bora.

NB Literary Magazine: An accomplished historical thriller set in Spain in 1937. This novel is confidently plotted and the tempo is judged to perfection… a thoughtful intelligent thriller that plays with a historical mystery in a manner respectful of the known facts. Documents released in 2015 appear to verify the claim that the Grenada fascists killed García Lorca in 1936, but his body has never been found.

Foreword Reviews: Pastor weaves a poignant, convincing portrait of life during wartime. Bora himself is a compelling protagonist, erudite enough to recite Aristotle to himself while repelling an ambush and innocent enough to fall for a local lass who changes his perspective on love.

Ben Pastor, born in Italy, lived for thirty years in the United States, working as a university professor in Vermont and has since returned to her native country. She is the author of other novels including The Water Thief and The Fire Waker (set in Roman times and published to high acclaim in the US by St. Martin’s Press), and is considered one of the most talented writers in the field of historical fiction. In 2008 she won the prestigious Premio Zaragoza for best historical fiction. She writes in English.