The Penalty by Mal Peet

Mal Peet is an amazing writer. He writes the most fascinating stories about basic subject matter that I would usually have no interest in. Keeper is predominantly about football/soccer, I'm not into sport in any way, yet I loved this book. Life: An Exploded Diagram is set during the cold war/Cuban missile crisis, I love me some ancient history, but modern has never been as engaging, yet this book totally blew my mind. So when it came to reading the 'next' in the 'Paul Faustino' series I was ready to put aside my dislike of sport once more because I knew I was going to get a great story none the less.

And I was right. If anything, this book has a lot less actual soccer in it than Keeper did, as this focuses more on the kidnapping of soccer star and the religion and voodoo that it is wrapped up in. Almost a half of the book is set in the 1800s, telling the story of a slave captured and brought to South America who ends up becoming a powerful spiritual leader. This same faith is the root of the kidnapping and the strange goings-on in San Juan, a city in an imaginary South American country.

I loved the two stories and how they intertwined, never really stating with any finality whether the spiritual happenings were real, or not. Leaving it to our own beliefs to decide.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Mal Peet's books, if you haven't read any, you should amend that!

4 Gold Stars

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8/40