winner of the prestigious gold dagger award in the uk for the best mystery of 1999 this complex literary thriller may be one of the most satisfying suspense novels to come along in some time robert wilson has written several political thrillers most of which are set in west africa but they are alas largely unavailable in the usin a small death in lisbon the narrative switches back and forth between 1941 and 1999 and wilsons wide knowledge of history and keen sense of place make the eras equally vibrant in 1941 germany klaus felsen an industrialist is approached by the ss high command in a nonetoofriendly manner and is persuaded to go to lisbon and oversee the saleor smugglingof wolfram also known as tungsten used in the manufacture of tanks and airplanes world war ii portugal is neutral where business is concerned and too much of the precious metal is being sold to britain when germany needs it to insure that hitlers blitzkrieg is successfulcut to 1999 lisbon where the daughter of a prominent lawyer has been found dead on a beach ze coelho a liberal police inspector who is a widower with a daughter of his own must sift through the life of catarina oliveira and discover why she was so brutally murdered her father is enigmatic her mother suicidal her friends were rock musicians and drug addictsthe reader is treated to a wonderful portrait of lisbon in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution that ousted salazar from power and the scars from that conflict are still close to the surface for the citizens of lisbon including coehlo and his colleagues we also see world war ii in a slightly different manner from that to which we are accustomedthrough the eyes of the germans and the portuguese the pace of the book is leisurely but compelling as the events of 1941 and those in 1999 merge in an extraordinary climax