Los enamoramientos - Javier Marías
Los enamoramientos opens with the narrator describing in detail a couple she used to watch every morning at a cafe before she started work at the office of a nearby publishing house. (The later realisation that it is a female comes as a surprise when you are used to the observational voice of the author as Juan Deza in Tu rostro mañana ). María Dolz sees Luisa and Miguel Desvern (or Deverne) as the perfect couple, immaculately turned out, classic in their style and manner, but not ostentatious. It's a little daily ritual that amuses her to observe, but at the time of her " pequeño estímulo matutino " she was unaware of their names, any kind of acquaintance restricted to merely visual observation with a vague nod of acknowledgement, so it takes a while to associate the newspaper report of a man killed in a knife crime with the murder of Deverne. Unlike a typical novel that would explore the underlying motivations or even randomness of the murder (a carpark attendant with ...