Okay. The film of the book stars Viggo Mortensen as the Spanish soldier-turned-mercenary Captain Alatriste, a heroic figure from the country’s 17th century imperial wars. It’s directed by a Spanish director as well, Agustín Díaz Yanes, so that may be reason for hope, since that’s where the movie is set.

I hear this is being made into a movie. I loved “The Club Dumas,” a previous book by Arturo Perez-Reverte, but wasn’t nearly as impressed by the Roman Polanski-Johnny Depp movie that grew out of it. I forget who’s the lead in the Alatriste movie, but whoever it was made me think that this could be interesting …