The Horseman's Song

Captain Martin Bora #6

by Ben Pastor

Spain, summer 1937. The civil war between Spanish nationalists and republicans rages. On the bloody sierras of Aragon, among Generalissimo Franco’s volunteers is Martin Bora, the twenty-something German officer and detective whose future adventures will be told in Lumen, Liar Moon, The Road to Ithaca and others in the Bora series.

Presently a lieutenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion, Bora lives the tragedy around him as an intoxicating epic, between idealism and youthful recklessness.

The first doubts, however, rise in Bora’ s mind when he happens on the body of Federico Garcia Lorca, a brilliant poet, progressive and homosexual. Who murdered him? Why? The official version does not convince Bora, who begins a perilous investigation. His inquiry paradoxically proceeds alongside that which is being carried out by an “enemy”: Philip Walton, an American member of the International Brigades. Soon enough the German and the New Englander will join forces, and their cooperation will not only culminate in a thrilling chase after a murderer, but also in a very human, existential face-to-face between two adversaries forever changed by their crime-solving encounter...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Spain, 20th Century, Spanish Civil War, Mystery, World War II

393 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Ben (Maria Verbena Volpi) Pastor was born in Rome, but her career as a college teacher and writer requires that she divide her time between the United States and Italy, where she is now doing research. Author of the internationally acclaimed Martin Bora war mysteries, she begins with Aelius Spartianus a new series of thrilling tales. In addition to the United States, her novels are published in Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic. She writes in English.

Reviews

[Irena Pasvinter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in Martin Bora series and the first one I didn't enjoy. Chronologically it's the first episode of Martin Bora's criminal investigations. Here he is a young German officer who "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War (on the nationalists side, of course). At the same time he works for the German secret service.

And lo and behold, he finds a dead body which eventually transpires to be the great Federico Garcia Lorca. And this is just the beginning...

If the previous books of the series felt credible, La Canzone del Cavaliere (The Horseman's Song) had an over the top feeling to it. Everything was a bit too much for me to suspend my disbelieve.

Some aspects of the plot were highly unconvincing (the fictional version of Lorca's mysterious death and the exposure of the murderer depending solely on Martin Bora's obsession with the case, not to mention the sublime local "witch" Remedias with her precise auguries), while other plot lines were highly predictable (the juxtaposition of Martin Bora and Philip Walton, an American volunteer from the enemy camp -- it was obvious they would eventually collide).

Anyway, I'm not giving on Martin Bora yet. I hope the next book is more plausible.

Read in 2021.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be a mistake to consider this extraordinary series mere crime fiction, because it´s so much more.The "mystery" in each book,if it weren´t so cleverly plotted, would be even secondary.
Each book is a thoughtful character study;more than that, a character dissection,and this particular one, in the mirror images of Bora (the fascinating protagonist) and Walton is,once more brilliant.
And then, there´s Lorca and his greatness.
Odd note: only series I know of that´s written helter skelter chronologically. The first one´s set in 1939,then in 1944, and this one,in 1937.
Wish this series were more widely known and praised.

[Alfonso D'agostino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lungamente atteso, direi quasi inseguito, per poter riprendere in ordine di uscita editoriale la meravigliosa serie che ha per protagonista Martin Bora. Fino a un paio di mesi fa, recuperabile solo (e a caro prezzo!) sul mercato dell’usato, quindi grazie a Sellerio per la pubblicazione.

Ciò premesso, e divorato le quattrocenta-e-ben-di-più pagine del volume, e fermo restando anche che se avete amato anche solo una delle avventure di Martin Bora non potete perdervi La canzone del cavaliere, una osservazione che mi viene un po’ dal cuore e un po’ dalla materia celebrale superstite dopo un difficilissimo pomeriggio calcistico.

Oggettivamente parlando, ma proprio oggettivamente, Martin Bora non appare al suo meglio. Manca al protagonista un po’ di quella profondità che ce lo ha fatto infinitamente amare nelle prime tre uscite della serie. Mancano alcuni spigoli e – insieme – alcune smussature, manca persino un filo di arguzia e quelle sfumature infinitamente umane che sembrano arrivare direttamente dalla vita di un amico prima ancora che da un personaggio creato dalla geniale penna di un’autrice.

Ora. Tralasciando che comunque nel romanzo c’è tan-tis-si-ma roba (anche solo lo sfondo spagnolo della guerra civile, Lorca, un investigatore fra i falngisti e uno nelle Brigate Internazionali che si alternano magistralmente nella trama), c’è un elemento che va preso assolutamente in considerazione. E cioè che Martin Bora ha (quasi) dieci anni e infinite esperienze in meno rispetto alle prime storie, e io trovo non solo credibile ma assolutamente opportuno che appaia meno solido, meno formato, più ingenuo di quello che ci saremmo aspettati. Mi inchino: ho letto mille romanzi di formazione e forse, per la prima volta, mi trovo davanti a una “serie di formazione”. Giù il cappello.

http://capitolo23.com/2019/10/06/mart...

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Horseman’s Song is the sixth book to feature Captain Martin Bora but don’t worry if (like me) you’ve not read previous books in the series because it’s a prequel and therefore a perfect place to start. I’ll warn you, however, that by the end you’re likely to be adding the other books in the series to your wishlist!

The author has fashioned a crime story around the real life mystery of the death during the Spanish Civil War of poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca, and the search for the location of his remains (which is still ongoing). I have to confess that, although I was familiar with the name Lorca, I didn’t know anything about his literary output or his death.

In this respect, I’m in much the same position as Martin Bora when he discovers the body of Lorca. Unaware of the dead man’s identity and the potential propaganda value to both sides of establishing who is responsible, initially it’s the questions raised by the circumstances of the discovery of the body that fuels his interest in investigating. Only later, when he reads some of Lorca’s poetry, does he find a more personal connection with the dead man. The same cannot be said for Philip Walton, in charge of the outpost of the opposing Republican forces. Walton’s relationship with Lorca is of a much more personal nature, stretching back to a visit to America by Lorca many years before.

The clever structure of the book sees both men, separately and initially without knowing it, looking into the circumstances of Lorca’s death. At the same time, they and their compatriots face one another across the valley taking occasional pot shots at one another, undertaking reconnaissance exercises or making surreptitious visits to the women of nearby villages. As the narrative switches frequently between the investigation and activities of Bora and Walton, it’s as if the reader is perched on the mountain top keeping a watch on both camps.

Both Bora (German) and Walton (American) are outsiders, drawn to different sides of the Civil War for complicated reasons and carrying a fair amount of emotional baggage. They both have things they want to forget and events in their past of which they feel ashamed. The reader gets an insight into this intermittently through extracts from Bora’s entries in his personal diary and through access to Walton’s thoughts. What they also share is a history of strained relationships with women. As it turns out, the two men find themselves drawn to the same mysterious and enigmatic local woman who (conveniently) is free with her sexual favours with no commitment asked in return.

A prequel provides both opportunities and challenges for an author, although probably less of the latter than a sequel does. The opportunities include the ability to delve more deeply into the past of the main character, to explain the background to decisions or actions they may take in later books, to fill in more of their back story. In The Horseman’s Song, the reader certainly gets a very extensive insight into the character of Martin Bora. The main challenge of a prequel is that the author can’t change what is going to happen in later, already written, books. It’s no spoiler to say that the reader knows that, however dangerous the situations in which he finds himself, Martin Bora isn’t going to die in The Horseman’s Song but, of course, he doesn’t know that. Thanks to the skilful writing of the author, Bora’s dices with death don’t lose any of their impact. The book also contains some wonderful lyrical writing, especially in the descriptions of the parched landscape of that part of Spain.

If, like me, you’re a fan of (the late lamented) Philip Kerr’s ‘Bernie Gunther’ series, you’ll probably love this for the historical crime element. Because of the setting, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls also came to mind while I was reading the book. Part fascinating history lesson, part astute psychological study, part intriguing historical crime mystery, The Horseman’s Song is beautifully written and has introduced me to a historical fiction series I’m sure I’m going to love reading more of in the future.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Bitter Lemon Press, and Random Things Tours.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slog. As compared to Bora's World War II adventures, much inferior. I was bored and the book dragged but I forced myself to read to the end.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un “giallo” che non è un giallo, un’ambientazione storica assai interessante oltre che precisa e corretta (un romanzo storico?), un doppio punto di vista che si incrocia in modo originale e gradevole, dei personaggi articolati e ben costruiti, insomma una piacevole lettura che mi ha abbastanza catturato. Martin Bora, indiscutibile protagonista, mi sa che ci rivediamo presto.

Della Pastor ho in casa Il ladro d’acqua (ambientato nell’antica Roma) che non sono riuscita mai a concludere, ma con questa serie direi che c’è stato un salto di qualità.

[James Lawless · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Horseman’s Song
Ben Pastor
Bitter Lemon Press
€11

The title is taken from Federica García Lorca’s poem Canción de Jinete and the poet’s work permeates the novel as a motif and it is his unsolved murder which sparks off the plot of this thriller. However initially, there’s a sort of fug of too many characters: nationalist, internationslist and Spanish, blocking the story from freeflow. There are longeurs and consecutive streams of minutiae such as page-long descriptions of rolling a cigarette. And, regarding a minor character a volunteer from Catalonia Josef Aixala, do we need to know that ‘the rows of buttons studding the breeches gave his calves the strange outline of an overgrown insect’? Such writing is over-indulgent. However it is worth persevering to the final third of the novel when emotions and tensions are ratcheted up as two detectives on opposing sides go in pursuit of the murderer of Lorca.
It is July 1937 when Martin von Bora, a German agent and detective is assigned to the nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. A lover of Lorca’s poetry, he is shocked when he discovers the body of the poet on an Aragonese mule track with a bullet wound in the back of his neck. Mystified, he proceeds to investigate. The more he does so the more he begins to question his nationalist colleagues and suspects they have had a hand in the poet’s death. They were suspicious of Lorca’s possible republican sympathies, and as the poet was gay, other motives for his killing could have been attributed to homomphobia.
Parallelling this on the republican side is American volunteer and war veteran Philip Walton who had befriended Lorca when the poet visited New York in 1929. Apparently the two men were to meet the night the poet was murdered, and Walton too commences to probe—for detailed factual insights into the circumstances of the death of Lorca one should consult Ian Gibson’s monumental biography of the poet. With their common goal the inevitable meeting of Walton and Bora takes place and, despite their opposing ideologies, a strange chemistry evolves between them. They make love to the same woman: the strange Remedios who is reputed to have prophetic powers and is referred to locally as a bruja or witch. Also with their mutual admiration of Lorca, both men begin to question the morality of war itself. ‘Little black horse/where are you taking/your dead horseman’ Bora says, quoting the poet. One feels however that there is sometimes a forced gravitas imposed by the author on the novel and not entirely earned with Bora, who also quotes from philosophers such as Kant, in his existential preoccupations written in random diary entries.
Ben Pastor is the pen name of Maria Verbena Volpi. She was born in Italy and lived and lectured for many years in America. Writing in English, she is capable of some wonderful lyrical descriptions in the novel particularly of the arid Spanish landscape and shows profound knowledge of historical and military matters pertaining to the Spanish Civil War. She is also gifted in being able to perceive the world in its sensuality through male eyes. For example, when Bora is with Remedios and, fearing he is going to die, he finds ‘her waist, her hip, a curve like a snowdrift he could huddle against and be safe’. Although what is unconvincing is, after his infatuation with Remedios for whom he would ‘scale mountains’, Bora will just up at the end and return to marry his little known German girlfriend Dikta on the basis of scant communication and only one letter received from her while he was away.

https://jameslawless.net

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can one be lyrical during times of war and have time to enjoy moments of poignant prose? The answer to that is yes and perhaps even more so considering who the victim is in this historical crime story. Pastor has gone back in time to use the disputed and controversial murder of the famous Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

His body was never found and there are plenty of books and debates about the why or indeed the culprits. The only thing everyone agrees on is that he was assassinated. The reasons seem to wander between his political affiliations and the fact he was homosexual. The truth will be somewhere in between, killed as part of mass execution protocols to extinguish supporters of the Marxist Popular Front and perhaps insulted before his death for his sexuality.

The author has taken that mystery and created a fascinating search for answers between two opposing sides in the midst of the Spanish civil war. Instead of focusing on strategy, front-lines and battle, this is about the men and women in the middle of brutal political machinations.

In, what I believe is, more of an ironic nod towards the search for the remains of Lorcas since his death, the plot revolves around finding the corpse. In fact there is less of a focus on the culprits than on the whole we need to find the body to give him a burial and honour him. To this day thousands have been spent on locating the remains of this honoured and revered poet.

Pastor has a very distinctive literary style, old school reflective and taking in all the sights and senses. In combination with the brash, brutal reality of wartime conflict it can be a little confusing. A bit like watching a black and white silent movie through a periscope with one eye, whilst the other eye is being battered with vivid, colourful and noisy images at the same time.

It’s crime, war, conflict and yet at the same time it’s also a statement of human inadequacies during times of great upheaval.
*I received a courtesy copy*

[Chequers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quarto libro della serie di Martin Bora, stavolta ambientata durante la guerra di Spagna. Sicuramente il più bello fino ad ora, il più intimista, trasmette tutto il dolore, i dubbi, I disagi, la nostalgia e la precarietà della vita di un soldato tedesco durante la II guerra mondiale e della sua controparte partigiana. Un libro che ti prende e non ti lascia fino alla fine.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Pastor, or rather, Martin Bora, is my go to whenever I want to enter a sort of contemplative, zen state. Pastor has a way of turning the right dials, flicking, gently, the deep-thought switches... making us go on a journey of self-discovery and introspection.
This is Martin Bora before the War but learning his skills as a soldier, and intelligence officer, during the Spanish Civil war. Here he is, near Teruel, in an area of pause between hostilities. Being the aristocrat that he is, he goes down to the local stream to have a wash when he finds a body.
It is that of the poet Lorca (though he doesn't know that yet).
He is asked to investigate the "execution" because Franco's local Nationalist representative fears that the Left will accuse them of having done the deed.
Meanwhile, in the Republican camp, an American officer and friend of Lorca's also begins his own investigation...
... and gently we enter this war of ideology and fratricide. It has its moments of almost surreality, of self-analysis, of doubt. It contrasts, not just Left and Right, but also age and self-doubt... and discovery.
Wonderful... wonderful...

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of Ben Pastor’s six detective novels featuring German intelligence officer Martin Bora and a prequel to novels covering Bora’s activities during the Second World War.
As the book opens, it’s summer 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Two tiny encampments located high in the rocky sierras of Aragon overlook a valley, a cane-lined brook, and the small town of Teruel. Bora heads one of these camps, comprising about seven Nationalists; the other, near enough for occasional sniper-fire, is similarly sized and led by American volunteer Philip Walton. Walton is a World War I veteran, a couple of decades older than Bora, and has joined the Republican side less because of conviction and more because he can’t think of anything better to do.
The men in both camps are a ragtag bunch and more prone to follow their own inclinations than any official orders. Neither unit is interested in attacking the other, preferring to save their energies for a big battle rumored to be coming soon. The proximity of these two encampments is illustrated by the fact that both Bora and Walton both visit the same prostitute high on the mountaintop. For Bora, the encounters with this young woman are life-changing; for Walton, they’re a painful reminder he’s aging. Yet they inspire destructive sexual jealousy.
Bora finds the body of a stranger shot in the head on the road below his encampment and wonders how this stranger ended up there. Walton also knows about the corpse, plus he knows who the man is: his friend Federico García Lorca, the revered poet and playwright, homosexual, and staunch Republican. Walton and his men bury García Lorca’s partway up the mountain; Bora’s scouts find the grave, remove the body, and bury it elsewhere. The official story—in the novel as well as in real life—is that García Lorca was murdered in 1936 outside Granada. The authorities on both sides would prefer that Bora and Walton let the official story stand unquestioned.
Separately, they conduct a somewhat clandestine investigation of the events of the fatal night and the motives of various people who might have been involved. It’s slow going, because Walton and Bora are mostly otherwise engaged. The times themselves dampen progress further. If Bora wants to send a message to Teruel, someone has to get on a donkey and take it. A response won’t arrive for hours. If Walton wants to investigate an event in the village of Castellar, he must climb the mountain to do so. The overall impression is of a hostile environment that’s dusty and hot, hot, hot. Author Pastor does an admirable job evoking the landscape, the conditions, and the way things got done (or not) eight decades ago.
With their murder investigations limping along, there is ample opportunity for exploring the characters of both Walton and Bora, as well as several of their underlings. Pastor’s writing style is dense and full of psychological insight. Her short scenes feel almost like an hour-by-hour bulletin on camp activities. And, of course, writing about García Lorca gives the opportunity for pithy epigrams from his wonderful poems.
Ben Pastor is the pseudonym for Maria Verbena Volpi. Born in Rome, she holds dual citizenship in Italy and the United States. Though Martin Bora is fictional, he was inspired by Claus von Stauffenberg, best known for his leading role in the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

[Cerisaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Ben Pastor's Martin Bora books so this latest translation (please hurry up with the rest!) was a Must Read for me. I was initially disappointed it turned out to be a prequel of sorts to the later books set during WWII. However I was quickly drawn in, realising Pastor gives us, in effect, the 'Making of' that later Bora. I know shamefully little about the Spanish Civil War, and so I was interested to learn more about it. I know Lorca, and the mystery surrounding his death, which forms the heart of the story. EDIT This article on the real story of Lorca's death might be of interest:
https://lithub.com/dictators-kill-poe...

This isn't a fast paced book by any measure, and you need patience to allow the story space to develop. Primarily it's a character study of two very different men: young, naive, idealistic, aristocratic, naturally conservative, religious Bora, a militaristic German fighting for Franco's fascists, and Walton, mid-forties, weary, army veteran of WWI who survived by luck and, he believes, cowardice, from a poor background in New England, not a member of the Communist party or any organisation but drawn to fight with/for the common man, not a believer in anything or anyone, cynical...you get the picture. The two men have in common a connection to Lorca and desire to find out what happened to the poet, who killed him and why, after his body is discovered in the harsh, dry, mountainous terrain where Republican and Nationalist forces face each other under the shadows of the Sierra. They share, too, a woman known as Remidios, locally reputed to be a witch.

I'm not sure whether readers coming to this book before later ones in the series will appreciate it fully. You need to be interested in Bora and I'm afraid he's a bit annoying in this one, so young, untested, full of himself. Anyway, I liked it, a lot. It made me do some research into the historical background, which is always a good result. The Spanish Civil War foreshadowed what was to come after 1939, and Pastor uses precognition intriguingly with regards to Martin Bora. The writing is rich and detailed, occasionally a little overwrought, dramatic, but it suits the story and its characters.

I must say I was amused by Martin's obliviousness as to one subordinate's keen interest in accompanying the young lieutenant for his daily outdoor bathing ritual. Such innocence. I know it can't be expected an uptight young Prussian officer of the era would hold favourable views of homosexuals but Bora, though shocked, doesn't join in his fellows' routine casual homophobia, and even resumes his bathing routine. Of course he has demonstrated his masculine attraction to the opposite sex, not to mention received tuition in the finer arts of m/f love-making, in the interim, thereby proving his hetero credentials. Oh Martin...

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Horseman’s Song is the sixth book of the Martin Bora series to be translated into English (and the fourth in the original Italian series). It is the earliest in time, set in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. A young member of German intelligence, Bora has joined the Spanish Foreign Legion and after training in Morocco has been posted to the sierras of Aragon. There he takes command of a nationalist outpost on a quiet sector of the front, where a handful of men oppose each other across a valley. When Bora finds the body of a famous poet, Federico Garcia Lorca (who did disappear during the war) he decides to investigate, ruffling the feathers of his Spanish commander. An American member of the international brigade, and a friend of Lorca, is suspicious of Bora’s motives. The two men enter a battle of wits in the heat of the Spanish summer and civil war. It’s a slow moving affair (perhaps too slow at times), written in nice prose, with Pastor charting the lives of Bora and Walton, their politics and motivations, their relationships with their men, and with women, and Bora’s inquiry as he starts to come of age as an army officer and investigator. There’s strong character development and well developed sense of place and history. The plot is understated and realistic, avoiding melodrama and plot devices designed to create pace and tension. The result is a literary, atmospheric mystery.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

PASTOR’S SPANISH MYSTERY IS ON SONG MOST OF THE TIME.


Every year particularly around the D-Day anniversary in June and Armistice in November, hundreds of friends and relatives and remaining few survivors make the pilgrimage to the world war battle field sites scattered across northern France and Belgium. I know friends who have done it, but it’s something I’ve never done and would like to do, especially the to the Civil War battle sites in America. One thing you never hear about though, is people going to visit the Spanish Civil War battle sites ( apart from probably the Spanish of course). Although a quick google does bring up guided tours of their sites. It’s strange I haven’t heard more about the Spanish Civil War, especially in Ireland, considering the couple of thousand Irish men who went over to fight on both sides of the war. This month’s second book review and blog tour is set during the Spanish Civil War, it’s The Horseman’s Song by Ben Pastor and published by Bitter Lemon Press (www.bitterlemonpress.com) on the 14th February.

Spain 1937, in the midst of the bloody Spanish Civil we find German Officer and Detective, Martin Von Bora assigned to the Sierras of Aragon in South Western Spain. Where he’s fighting with the Spanish Foreign Legion. There he discovers the body of Federico Garcia Lorca , the brilliant Spanish poet and playwright, as he begins what will be a perilous investigation into the murder, he discovers Walton his opposite number in the International Brigades is also looking into Lorca’s death, as he was a friend of the victim. Soon Bora and Walton join forces and their joint investigation culminates in a thrilling chase after writers killer.

This is the sixth novel in Ben Pastor’s historical detective series featuring Martin Von Bora but my first occasion to make his acquaintance. Researching the other novels prior to writing this I was surprised to find that this is a prequel, being set during the Spanish Civil War. Reading the book, I was intrigued to wonder how Pastor would continue the series, with Von Bora, A Wehrmacht Officer, as a sympathetic lead character as he progressed into the era of World War Two. I anticipated waiting for the next novel to be released but it seems I just need to return to the first and read on from there.

I found this an engrossing read. It is certainly a slow burn. Pastor is known for her accurate wartime settings and this is the case here. However, she doesn’t give us an overall history lesson. She focuses attention on one death and on the lives of two groups of antagonists. The opposing forces occupying two elevated positions above the sierra. They spend their time surviving the heat, deprivation and boredom while they await news of the next offensive. Von Bora himself , has just taken command of the nationalist post after the previous lieutenant was shot. He is a German officer, taking orders from the Nationalist army but carrying out his own intelligence gathering for his German superiors. His counterpart on the Internationalist post is Phillip (Felipe) Walton, who is an American volunteer. Felipe has survived world war one but was unable to settle back into civilian life and left his life and marriage to fight in the Spanish civil war, bringing his secrets and fears along.

Two things emerge to unite Walton’s and Von Bora’s interest and energies. The body of Frederico Garcia Lorca, a famous poet discovered in the valley between the two camps. This is one point when Pastor strays from fact. No one is sure what happened to Lorca. The history books tell us he was shot by Franco’s troops at the beginning of the Civil War but no one knows where his body is buried. Pastor has created her own fictional account of his death within these pages, cleverly referring to false rumours of his earlier demise.

When Von Bora comes across the body and is immediately interested in how the unknown man died. He reports on the body to his Colonel, who recognises the identity of the victim from Von Bora’s description and tries to keep it a secret, but when they go to fetch the body it is gone, removed by the Internationalists. Both sides immediately blame the other and a long game of cat and mouse ensues with the body being moved and reinterred and each man making his own investigation. For some it is a matter of personal sorrow, for others propaganda and for Von Bora a puzzle to be solved.

The second character is a Bruja or witch who lives alone at the top of a neighbouring craggy peak. Both Walton and Von Bora visit her. She enchants them with her free spirit and mystical approach and with her lovemaking skills. The character seems surreal and you are left wondering if she is a figment of their imaginations. There is a great deal of philosophical discussion in the book. I like things a bit more literal and less deep I’m afraid, but I wondered if she was meant to be a metaphor?

Ben Pastor (www.benpastor.com) is the pseudonym of Italian born American author Maria Verbena Volpi. After studying Archaeology in Rome, she moved to the United States to teach in the the Mid-West and Vermont. Her previous five Martin Bora Novels include: Lumen (1999); Liar Moon (2001); A Dark Song Of Blood (2002); Master of One Hundred Bones (2011). She’s also written a detective series centered around a Roman soldier in the fourth century and two books featuring a pair of detectives in Prague on the eve of world war one. She has written fourteen books to date, but this is the first time The Horseman’s Song has been published the UK. It was originally published in 2003.

The cover blurb talks about a thrilling chase to catch the killer. I didn’t find that in the story. What I did feel was a slow build of tension and heat. Like a kettle building to the boil. There was a lot of time when nothing really happened, but I still felt the tension increasing. I was looking forward to a great reveal and grand finale but despite the clever denouement and not seeing the answer in advance, I did feel a little disappointed after all my hard work reading this rather chunky tome. However, overall the reading experience was satisfying because of the excellent writing.

So if you love Historical fiction, then get down to your local bookshop or download a copy and get into the Martin Von Bora series. Not forgetting any of Pastors other historical mysteries.



Reviewed By Georgina Murphy at www.thelibrarydoor.me

[Ilaria Palestra · Rating 4 out of 5]

1937, Aragona, siamo nei pressi della cittadina di Teruel. Su un lato della Sierra, un avamposto nazionalista, di fronte uno repubblicano. Nel mezzo, un rio. Una mattina, Martin Bora, ufficiale tedesco affiancato ai nazionalisti, trova un cadavere sulle sponde del corso d'acqua. Non lo sa, ma si tratta del poeta Federico Garcia Lorca. Suo malgrado, viene incaricato di investigare e di identificare l'assassino, e verra' aiutato nelle sue indagini da Philip Walton, americano, volontario, a capo dello sparuto gruppo repubblicano. Philip aveva conosciuto Lorca negli Stati Uniti, e i due erano rimasti amici nel corso degli anni. Un libro a mio avviso molto bello, come altri letti in precedenza di Ben Pastor con Martin Bora protagonista. L'elemento giallo/investigativo si mescola con l'elemento storiografico, ed e' questo secondo me il punto di forza delle opere di questa autrice. Bora e' un personaggio a suo modo intrigante....il nazista tutto d'un pezzo e fondamentalmente buono e onesto....detto cosi' pare incredibile, ma nel corso dei vari libri diventa una figura veramente interessante. Ques'opera e' la prima in ordine temporale, ma non cronologico, quindi chi ha letto opere precedenti e "conosce" il futuro di Martin apprezzera' ancora di piu' le vicende qui narrate, dell'inizio della sua carriera militare. Molto belle anche le descrizioni naturalistiche, il paesaggio riarso, scabro della Sierra, il cielo infinito. Un gran bel libro.

[Thebooktrail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discover the locations in the novel here

This one grabbed my interested as it looks at the controversial murder of the famous Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. I’ve read a lot of his work and visited sites in Spain associated with him so I was particularly keen to read this. I do know his body was never found, nor were the culprits. No one really seems to know why he was murdered either – was it to do with his political leanings during a time of war, or was it to do with his homosexuality.

There was so much to this book – very meaty – but it was a feast for the mind. Its one of the greatest mysteries of the war in Spain so to read this in a bok form, was very interesting. The author has an old-fashioned style which suits the themes well and it was a wonderful organisation. I am very tempted to get this in the original Spanish now as I think that would be a rare treat indeed.

[William Bentrim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Horseman’s Song by Ben Pastore
This is one of those books that is probably really good Hemingwayish. I, however, could not get into it. The Spanish Civil War was the setting. It was confusing as to sides. Two enemies end up combining forces to solve a murder.

The Spanish Civil War seems to have involved far more than two sides. Somewhat similar to ISIS, fighters came from around the world to join both sides. Confusion and conflict were the result. Historically the civil war was a testing ground for weapons and strategies by Russia, Germany and other powers.

As much as I like history, this book never grabbed me.

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prequel to the Bora novels set in WWII: in Spain where he stumbles into investigating the murder of Lorca. The details of the story are wholly fictional aside from the murder. A curious book though, slightly over written and portentous, and set stagily around a little town with the small detachments of the nationalists and the republicans facing each other across the hills. A lot of time is spent scuffling around in the camps. Bora’s adversary is an American who knew Lorca. Both men share a fascination with a woman who may be a witch. Anyway, Bora figures it out and loses a lot of illusions and gains some knowledge.

[Pirate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spanish Civil War I am ashamed to say is not something I know an awful lot about -- Homage to Catalonia apart and Ken Loach's film -- despite it being pivotal to the Nazis and World War II which I have studied ad nauseam. So I thought this might at least present an introduction to it through the murder of Lorca. However, it was way too slow -- though it did succeed in illustrating that not all theatres of war are about constant engagement and movement -- and the principal characters whilst credible were too cold for me to be drawn into it. I am pleased I persevered to the end but it became a war of attrition to get there.

[Paolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

- [x] Pastor - la canzone del cavaliere - 7 - non tradisce le aspettative ben pastor. Lo schema è il solito: martin bora è tenente volontario nelle schiere fasciste nella guerra civile spagnola. Tutto quello che gli capiterà durante la seconda guerra mondiale è ancora lontano, ed ancora sembra soffrire i rapporti con i suoi superiori, approcciando quanto accade senza malizia. Ma come sempre il coraggio, la mente arguta ed il sottile ragionamento lo porteranno a risolvere il mistero di garcia Lorca (molto interessante la ricostruzione) ed a farsi nuovi nemici. Promettente

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

An incredibly dull and meandering novel. Reading earlier reviews I had expected to at least give a damn about the outcome - sadly the conclusion of the fictional events surrounding the murder of Lorca was deeply unfulfilling. A huge flawed and quite ridiculous attempt at historical crime fiction.

[Bruna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scrittura ottima come sempre ma la trama non mi ha soddisfatto. Che io sappia l’unico vero mistero sulla morte di Lorca è il luogo della sepoltura, quindi questa ricostruzione di fantasia mi ha lasciato perplessa (tra l’altro i riferimenti temporali non mi tornano). Martin Bora in questa versione giovanile più ingenua e imprudente fa quasi tenerezza.

[Allen W Head · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cut the atmosphere with a knife

The Spanish Civil War is one of the most fascinating events in modern history. Ben Pastor captures the starkness, heat, despair and mystery of Spain. A great what if with a memorable cast! Having lived myself in Franco’s Spain as a teen, I was very nostalgic.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Pastor never fails to deliver and all the books are engaging and interesting.
This one was no exception.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Bitter Lemon Press and Edelweiss for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Number 1 chronologically in the Von Bora series.

[Gene Borowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the first 5 Martin Bora novels, but this book was simply ponderous. Hopefully "The Night of the Shooting Stars" (Bora #7) gets the series back on track.

[Marco · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far, i am at 40% reading, this is by far the worst of the serie. Slow, completely unrealistic Characters are undefined, Boring. i will try to complte the reading, luckyly it is short. Other Bora's books are very enjoyable. Unfortunately could not find the strength to continue reading. One of the very few unfinished readings in my life.

[Martina]

Ben Pastor's Martin Bora series is set in the years before, during, and after WW II. This novel in the series, The Horeseman's Song, is set in 1937 Franco Spain. Expected publication in the US from Bitter Lemon is 10 March 2019