Purity of Blood: The Adventures of Captain Alatriste - Tapa dura

The Purity of Blood is the latest in a line of utterly unputdownable novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte in which he has finessed a storytelling tradition stretching back to his great literary predecessors...This latest book is brimming with all the panache of previous novels by the writer and with even more confidence...This is glorious stuff, the kind of book to remind us how exhilarating old-fashioned adventure writing can be. (Barry Forshaw EXPRESS (13.1.06))

This is fiction that can be enjoyed on several levels: as a poignant evocation of doomed imperial splendour; as a clever literary game in which historical and invented figures rub shoulders; as a parable about racism past and present; or as a simple tale of swashbuckling derring-do. (John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES (15.1.06))

¿Intelligent exciting historical swashbucklers¿With writing rich in the minutiae of 17th-century Madrid life and interspersed with poetry, the author is clearly having a ball and the reader can join with him¿ (WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY)

The plot moves quickly...Perez-Reverte is...engaged with the theme of religious fanaticism, providing vivid depictions of the Inquisition and its public theatre of auto-de-fe (Michael Saler TLS (20.1.06))

The book is full of vivd scenes bringing to life 17th century Spain, its deadly political in-fighting, its braggadocio and the ever-present threat of war. (Susanna Yager SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (29.1.06))

Perez-Reverte is at his most skilful when he narrates the swordfights and physical confrontations that occupy much of our swashbuckling hero's waking hours. He is knowledgeable and convinicing in his evocation of those earlier darkers times...His novels are fine examples of historical writing for a mass audience, and that is his most important achievement. (Mike Gonzalez THE HERALD (11.2.06))

A woman has been found in a sedan chair in front of a church, strangled. In her hand is a pouch containing fifty escudos and a handwritten - but unsigned - note bearing the words 'For masses for her soul'. The chief constable Martin Saldana confides in his old friend and comrade in arms, Diego Alatriste. Still in danger from the powerful enemies he made in his first adventure, Captain Alatriste is considering returning to Flanders where the war has just resumed. But first, his old friend Quevedo asks him for a favour. The daughter of one of his friends must be rescued from a convent, which certain 'priests' seem to be treating as little more than a harem. Then the woman who brought the girl to the convent goes missing and the connection is made to the murder at the church. It seems that Alatriste's sword is required once more.