The Flanders Panel - Arturo Perez-Reverte

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⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

For anyone wanting to get back into the world of chess after The Queen's Gambit, this could be for you! Julia restores art, and when she discovers the inscription "Who killed the knight?" hidden on a famous painting of two men playing chess, she starts looking into the mystery. That then turns into a real-life mystery for her when someone she talked to about the painting gets killed, and the killer is leaving notes for her about what move to play next in the chess game in the painting. It takes place in the dark side of the art world, but all of the answers to what's happening seem to be hidden in the chess game as it gets played out in real life.

This was fun and nerdy, with a darkness running through it all. I couldn't usually follow all of the chess talk, but it was generally explained in a way that the details were there for the chess fans, but you still understand the main point if you have to skim it. This was book was also written in 1990 in Spain, which gives it an exotic, classic mystery feel.

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