The Prisoner of Heaven continues the stories of those characters from The Shadow of the Wind, and The Angel’s Game, but this time focuses on the story of Daniel Sempere – the bookseller’s son. Business is not going well for the bookstore until one day when a mysterious stranger shows up, buys an expensive antique book, and leaves a cryptic message in it for Daniel’s fellow bookstore worker and friend, Fermin Romero de Torres.
When confronted with the message, Fermin launches into a story of being imprisoned years ago, which begins a new section of the book, told from Fermin’s point of view from within the prison.
*Minor Spoilers ahead.*
From Fermin’s tale we learn that two of his fellow prisoners were: the mysterious man, and David Martin (the writer who was the main character in The Angel’s Game). Seeing Martin from the perspective of other prisoners is enlightening as to his mental condition, and allows the reader to see The Angel’s Game in a whole new light as well. Of course this could be seen as revelatory (Martin was just crazy so most of what happened in The Angel’s Game was all in his mind), or one could say that it really doesn’t matter what other people thought, and that Martin’s experiences still could be real even if he is the only one who can see the person he talks to while in his cell. Regardless of which camp you fall into, the prison scenes enhance the Gothic overtones of the whole series.
The man who is in charge of the prison is named Valls, and he is exposed throughout the story as a most vile villain. Through the story of Valls’ actions during the time of Fermin’s imprisonment, pieces of the plot from all three books begin to coalesce.
The epilogue points very clearly to the direction that the next book will take, but raises questions about the fate of both David Martin and Valls. All in all this was a much more satisfying addition to the series than The Angel’s Game. I appreciate it all the more for helping me to make some sense of what was going on in the second book, and for giving continuity to the story on the whole. It’s nice to see things coming full circle as the author finally begins to give the reader answers to some of the questions raised by the previous books.
Although not entirely necessary, I recommend reading the books in order (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven). It’s also a good idea to refresh your memory as to the plots of the other books prior to reading this one.
Rating: 4.5/5
I received a free copy of this book for review.
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