Best Selling Books by Robert Wilson

Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón investigates a series of suspicious suicides in the "intricate [and] chilling" follow up to The Blind Man of Seville ( Publishers Weekly). In an exclusive suburb of Seville, Spain, a wealthy couple is found dead in their home, the tragic conclusion to an apparent suicide pact. Lucia Vega has been suffocated in her own bed, while her husband, construction magnate Rafael Vega, has succumbed to poison, a bizarre note clutched in his hand. When Inspector Javier Falcón is called to investigate the scene, he senses something is not as it seems—a hunch that proves all too true. Within two days, two more dubious suicides occur, a fire rages through the hills above the city, and Falcón himself receives ominous threats from the Russian mafia. Embroiled in a conspiracy much larger than it originally appeared, Falcón must uncover the secrets that were buried with the dead, before the gruesome body count rises even higher. "Tangly, sprawly, garrulous, astute, here's one more Wilson witchery that intertwines literature and art." — Los Angeles Times "Wilson builds a many-layered portrait of survivors and perpetrators, each consumed by rage, guilt, or depression." — The Boston Globe

Stage director Robert Wilson has devoted himself to the integration of elements from a range of creative fields into the realm of theater. Light and movement have played an especially central role in his productions, not only as compositional elements but as symbolic features. In this publication, his wildly creative, discipline-crossing oeuvre is approached through a framework of five suggestive sections: "The Deaf Man's Gaze," "The Automaton's Freedom," "What Marlene Dietrich Knew," "The Prisms of Silence" and "The Theater in Infinite Space."

A portrait of the visual historian illuminates his role in establishing photography as a valued documenting tool, analyzing his portraits of period dignitaries and his self-sacrificing effort to capture images of the Civil War.

In this, one of the year's most compelling biographies, Robert Wilson paints a brilliant portrait of Clarence King -- a scientist-explorer whose mountain-scaling, desert-crossing, river-fording, blizzard-surviving adventures helped create the new West of the nineteenth century. A sort of Howard Hughes of the 1800s, Clarence King in his youth was an icon of the new America: a man of both action and intellect, who combined science and adventure with romanticism and charm. The Explorer King vividly depicts King's amazing feats and also uncovers the reasons for the shocking decline he suffered after his days on the American frontier. The Yale-educated King went west in 1863 at age twenty-one as a geologist-explorer. During the next decade he scaled the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, published a popular book now considered a classic of adventure literature, initiated a groundbreaking land survey of the American West, and ultimately uncovered one of the greatest frauds of the century -- the Great Diamond Hoax, a discovery that made him an international celebrity at a time when they were few and far between. Through King's own rollicking tales, some true, some embroidered, of scaling previously unclimbed mountain peaks, of surviving a monster blizzard near Yosemite, of escaping ambush and capture by Indians, of being chased on horseback for two days by angry bandits, Robert Wilson offers a powerful combination of adventure, history, and nature writing. He also provides the bigger picture of the West at this time, showing the ways in which the terrain of the western United States was measured and charted and mastered, and how science, politics, and business began to intersect and influence one another during this era. Ultimately, King himself would come to symbolize the collision of science and business, possibly the source of his downfall. Fascinating and extensive, The Explorer King movingly portrays the America of the nineteenth century and the man who -- for better or worse -- typified the soul of the era.

This stunning, atmospheric thriller set in war-torn Europe won the CWA Gold Dagger and has now been reissued with the Javier Falcon series.

“Robert Wilson’s Barnum, the first full-dress biography in twenty years, eschews clichés for a more nuanced story…It is a life for our times, and the biography Barnum deserves.” —The Wall Street Journal P.T. Barnum is the greatest showman the world has ever seen. As a creator of the Barnum & Baily Circus and a champion of wonder, joy, trickery, and “humbug,” he was the founding father of American entertainment—and as Robert Wilson argues, one of the most important figures in American history. Nearly 125 years after his death, the name P.T. Barnum still inspires wonder. Robert Wilson’s vivid new biography captures the full genius, infamy, and allure of the ebullient showman, who, from birth to death, repeatedly reinvented himself. He learned as a young man how to wow crowds, and built a fortune that placed him among the first millionaires in the United States. He also suffered tragedy, bankruptcy, and fires that destroyed his life’s work, yet willed himself to recover and succeed again. As an entertainer, Barnum courted controversy throughout his life—yet he was also a man of strong convictions, guided in his work not by a desire to deceive, but an eagerness to thrill and bring joy to his audiences. He almost certainly never uttered the infamous line, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” instead taking pride in giving crowds their money’s worth and more. Robert Wilson, editor of The American Scholar, tells a gripping story in Barnum, one that’s imbued with the same buoyant spirit as the man himself. In this “engaging, insightful, and richly researched new biography” (New York Journal of Books), Wilson adeptly makes the case for P.T. Barnum’s place among the icons of American history, as a figure who represented, and indeed created, a distinctly American sense of optimism, industriousness, humor, and relentless energy.

As Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón investigates a faceless, mutilated corpse, the beautiful city of Seville is rocked by a massive explosion. The discovery of a mosque in the basement of a devastated apartment building confirms everybody's terrorist fears. Panic sweeps the city and the region goes on red alert. As more bodies are dragged from the rubble, the media interest and political pressure inten­sify and Falcón suspects that all is not what it appears to be. Just as he comes close to cracking the conspiracy, he makes the most terrifying discovery of all and the race is on to prevent a catastrophe far beyond Spain's borders. A masterful thriller, The Hidden Assassins is fiction of the highest order.

A Spanish detective investigates a series of grisly killings in a crime thriller that maintains "an almost unbearable pitch of excitement" ( Booklist). Called to a gruesome crime scene, Inspector Javier Falcón is shocked and sickened by what he finds there. Strewn like flower petals on the victim's shirt are the man's own eyelids, evidence of a heinous crime with no obvious motive. When the investigation leads Falcón to read his late father's journals, he discovers a disturbing and sordid past. Meanwhile, more victims are falling. While he struggles to solve the case, he comes across a missing section of his father's journal—and becomes the murderer's next intended victim. Combining suspenseful storytelling with a thoughtful exploration of the human psyche, The Blind Man of Seville is a terrifying and "consistently stunning" police procedural from the Gold Dagger Award–winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon ( St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

From an historical perspective, this text presents an entirely non- mathematical introduction to astronomy from the first endeavours of the ancients to the current developments in research enabled by cutting edge technological advances. Free of mathematics and complex graphs, the book nevertheless explains deep concepts of space and time, of relativity and quantum mechanics, and of origin and nature of the universe. It conveys not only the intrinsic fascination of the subject, but also the human side and the scientific method as practised by Kepler, defined and elucidated by Galileo, and then demonstrated by Newton.

The "crackerjack" first thriller in the London-set series featuring kidnap consultant Charles Boxer ( The Wall Street Journal). When the twenty-five-year-old daughter of Indian billionaire Frank D'Cruz is kidnapped, former cop turned private security professional Charles Boxer is charged with getting her back alive. Boxer knows all-too-well how the dark forces in London can reach out and ensnare an innocent victim. He also knows that D'Cruz's crooked business empire has made him plenty of enemies. But despite the family's vast fortune, the kidnappers aren't looking for money. Instead, they favor a crueler, more lethal game that will put many lives at stake as the trail crosses paths with a terrorist plot on British soil. Capital Punishment is a "smart, sophisticated, and twisty thriller" from the award-winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon ( Library Journal, starred review).

The final psychological thriller featuring Javier Falcon, the tortured detective from 'The Hidden Assassins' and 'The Blind Man of Seville.'.