The plot of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Painter of Battles (Random, Jan.) seems simple enough: famous war photographer Andres Faulques turns to painting to capture the essence of the art of war. He suddenly finds that his past has come to life when a visitor arrives at his doorstep saying, “Do you remember me? I'm going to kill you.” Thus begins a complex and delicate dance between predator and prey. For the photographer recording the images in front of the camera, life and death are depersonalized. For his visitor, the camera has revealed him to a hostile world and his unwanted notoriety has caused great pain and suffering. But who should be responsible? In the dialogue that follows, Pérez-Reverte shows his absolute mastery of the dramatic conflicts that make us human. His characters, flawed but not weak, come to life through the slow excision of layers that eventually reveal the uncertainty and fragility of their beliefs. This is an elegant, disturbing and thought-provoking novel.