Max, gentleman thief, hustler and tango dancer, will see his life turned upside down by his encounter on a tango air, with the alluring and mysterious mecha, rich wife of a music composer, a femme fatale straight out of a film noir of the 30s. It does not need more to Pérez-Reverte to embark on a world tour, from Buenos Aires to Nice, through the Amalfi Coast, the time of a few days and nights, three key moments in the history 20th century. And that is the art of the author who knows skillfully mingle novel of espionage and sentimental novel, romance and eroticism, with a historical background! He knows like no return cosmopolitan life of the idle rich, elegant, nonchalant, exquisitely polite barely tainted by an icy contempt for those who do not belong to their caste. And it remains the book is closed, sweet nostalgia, which bathes the end of the story, that of Max, aged, who left the track in style on a distant tango air.
So why only 3 ***? I will well have to 4. But I confess that I found quite lengths at first as the action really starts on page 200. Then, this alternating structure that is found in all contemporary novels here irritated me because too visible! it takes a lot of skill to the tricks of the story are not visible. But here, change time every 6 or 7 pages, affects the fluidity of the narrative and break the suspense instead of increase. It's a shame because the writing of Pérez-Reverte is no lack of virtuosity!
