I got the ‘The Prisoner of Heaven’ as a Christmas present, promised it was the second installment of ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ series. Now that I finished reading the actual second installment, I’m not so upset that the blunder even occurred. I even advise readers to go through the series with the following order: ‘The Shadow of The Wind’ (TSOTW I), ‘The Prisoner of Heaven’ (TSOTW III) then ‘The Angel’s Game’ (TSOTW II).

Anyhow, you know you’re back in Zafon’s world when layers of dust and shadows interbreed in order to paint an archaic Barcelona, a city weighed down by dark secrets and darker souls.
TSOTW III ends with Daniel receiving a parcel David Martin has left him. The package contained a book, ‘The Angel’s Game’, and a letter from its author, none other than David Martin himself, explaining his motives, promising some answers. In the letter, David informs Daniel: “You’ll find some of the answers in this manuscript, where I have tried to portray my story as I remember it, knowing that my days of lucidity are numbered and that often I can only recall what never took place.”

I’ve started writing this review back when I was still in part one of the book. I was so absorbed by the storytelling of Zafon and the intricate melodrama of David Martin’s troubled childhood that I thought, well, nothing could vex me. Erroneous I was, because from the last pages of part one till the very end of the book, the story keeps taking a small yet inexorable steep. Slowly you become frustrated by the overlapping events and revelations, the metaphysics crippling in from here and there, and the mental state of the author that keeps on deteriorating.

The manuscript was supposed to give Daniel some answers. However, I don’t really see the point of it. Besides that it confirms that David and Isabella Sempre (Daniel’s mother) never made love discarding the possibility that David may be Daniel’s father, the whole idea behind it is wobbly. It doesn’t even provide Daniel with the true stats regarding Isabella’s death.

That put aside, The Angel’s Game, as an independent installment is addictive. There is something so inviting, so narcotic about the character’s fates; fates baptized in despair and misfortune. Add to that a gothic atmosphere drenched in blood, ice and flames and voilà, you have a truly engaging novel, the type of novel you can’t go through without depleting your senses.