The Angel’s Game (Extra book)

This may be an extra read today but at some point an RA will be listing this as a favorite book, for sure.  The author penned one of MY favorite all time books (Shadow of the Wind), and this is book, The Angel’s Game, is much in the same vain as Shadow of the Wind.  The Angel’s Game occurs before Shadow of the Wind and a few cross-over characters are in the book, as are a few of the locations, namely Barcelona, the place the book is set.  A young boy (David Martin), who becomes fatherless (his mother left the family year’s prior), is now being financially supported by one of the lead writers (Pedro Vidal) at a local newspaper.  As he comes of age, David is forced out of the paper, after demonstrating his keen ability to write stories and becomes a “ghost writer” for an unscrupulous publisher.  While slaving to make’s end meet through his ghost writing, he is approached by a mystery man, Andreas Corelli, who offers him solace through working on a new book on religion – that seems to be David’s “deal with the devil” as he immediately improves from a “deadly disease” instantaneously after agreeing to write the book.  Like Shadow of the Wind, there is great intrigue, murder, and love stories, especially David’s love for the future wife (Christina Sagnier) and of his “mentor” whom he rewrites Vidal’s book without his knowledge.  The bulk of the story is David being torn apart by his love for Christina, now that she is married to Pedro and his fear of the mysterious Corelli whom no one seems to think is alive.  We have the same mystery’s as Shadow of the Wind, great minor characters, and the ability of the author to paint the relationships between people as we live in our world today.  The only minor fault in the book is the convoluted mystery of who Corelli really is and how David gets involved in a series of murders (way too many in the last 50 pages!).  Zafon rips your heart out in this one with a not so “picture-perfect” fairy-tale ending.  Overall a great read, just think the author went a bit too far in not really answering the plot twist at the end.  Well maybe a sequel for this book?  I’d read it if it came out.