Review by Booklist Review
Árbol builds a complex and engaging crime novel from many seemingly disparate characters and events. Diffident, middle-age Barcelona attorney Gonzalo Gil maintains his modest solo practice, but his assertive wife wants him to join her father's high-powered firm, and Gonzalo knows the invitation will cost him. Things begin to spin out of control when he learns that his estranged older sister, who gave up a promising career in journalism to become a police inspector, has committed suicide and is assumed to have tortured and murdered a Russian gangster. As in the author's debut, The Sadness of the Samurai (2012), new characters and events seem to arrive every few pages. They include the stories of a young African man sold into slavery and made a child soldier, a shadowy Russian mafioso, and Gonzalo's father's struggle to survive in Stalin's nascent 1933 gulag and, later, his efforts to subvert the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. A Million Drops is genuinely compelling, but at more than 600 pages stuffed, it might leave some readers feeling like they've overindulged on a very rich dessert.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This relentless tale of individual crimes and systemic atrocities from Spanish author Del Arbol (The Sadness of the Samurai) opens in October 2001, not far from Barcelona, where Russian mobster Zinoviev drowns six-year-old Roberto Gil in a lake, in an apparent act of retaliation. Eight months later, the boy's mother, Deputy Insp. Laura Gil, is implicated in Zinoviev's death by torture and then commits suicide. Laura's younger brother, small-time attorney Gonzalo Gil, is left to figure out how his father, Communist hero Elías Gil, was partly responsible for setting in motion the recent bloodshed and how the Matryoshka, a Russian criminal organization, is connected to the family's past and present. The characters of Elías's generation survive a Siberian gulag, the Spanish Civil War, and WWII, but lose their humanity along the way, tainting the lives of those around them. Drawing on some of the most heinous events of the 20th century, Del Arbol crafts a powerful but painful epic. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In 1933, young Spanish communist Elías Gil travels to Moscow to study. He is arrested and sent to Siberia for a crime he didn't commit. By the time he escapes, he has done unforgivable things: he lets the woman he loves drown and gives up her daughter to an abusive monster in return for saving his own life. The rest of Elías's story is the consequence of these choices. Forty years later, back in Spain, he disappears. His wife claims he was killed by fascists, but the facts are murky. Then in 2002, his son Gonzalo learns that his long-estranged sister Laura has committed suicide to avoid arrest for the torture-murder of a Russian who killed her son. Slowly at first, then faster, Gonzalo's life unravels as he investigates Laura's death and family history. Eventually, he realizes that his father wasn't the great antifascist hero of the Spanish Civil War he thought he was. By the end of this book, all are tainted and few live without regret. -VERDICT This blockbuster novel by an award-winning Spanish author (The Sadness of the Samurai) succeeds as historical fiction, a thriller, and a detective story. Think Crime and Punishment, only more jarring.-David Keymer, Cleveland © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A mystery on an epic scale, extending over decades, generations, and nations as it attempts to illuminate the deepest mystery of allthe evil within the human soul.In the latest from Spanish author del rbol (The Sadness of the Samurai, 2012, etc.), Gonzalo Gil, a Barcelona lawyer of little distinction, learns that his long-estranged sister, Laura, has committed suicide shortly after hearing that she would soon be charged with murder. A Russian thug had kidnapped and killed her son, and she, in turn, had hunted down and killed the Russian. Or so suggests all the circumstantial evidence, though those closest to Laura insist she couldn't have done it. So, with a little prodding, Gonzalo resolves to have the case reopened and finds himself entangled in decades of mystery concerning his father, a hero in the resistance against Francoa man he revered more than rememberedand the shadowy circumstances surrounding his death. Gonzalo was only 5 when his father disappeared, a time when his sister was his great love and protector. One strand of the narrative traces Gonzalo's progress on the case of his sister and the murder of her son. The other shows the reality of his father's life, so different from the legend that cast such a long shadow over his son. What had his father suffered? What had he become? In the course of his investigation, Gonzalo will discover just who his father was, why his sister split from the rest of the family, and how the Russians wove their web for decades to ensnare them all.Meticulously plotted and stylishly written, this is a page-turner with fresh twists and surprises right up to the very end. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
