Review by Booklist Review
This highly intelligent thriller opens with the discovery of a Nazi bunker, accidentally uncovered while foundations are being laid for the new, united Berlin. It's an excellent device for reminding us that, in Europe, the past lies close to the surface. Vlado Petric (first seen in Lie in the Dark 1999) is a Bosnian cop who stayed on the job during the fighting in Sarajevo, then blew the whistle on local corruption and escaped to join his family in Berlin, where he's spent the last five years working in construction. An American investigator for the International War Crimes Tribunal recruits Vlado to return home and help snare a war criminal--not from the Balkan genocide, but from World War II. The twists are dizzying as Vlado is drawn into a wilderness of mirrors that involves secret identities, stolen Croatian gold, and, ultimately, his own family. This is both a grown-up yarn, where small decisions can have unforeseen consequences, and a modern one that reflects the complicated reality of international justice and diplomacy (in one scene, the Tribunal investigator has to check out and return his sidearm). Fesperman was a newspaper correspondent in Berlin during the former Yugoslavia's civil war, and his expertise shows on every page. Very fine. --Keir Graff Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"The past isn't dead, it isn't even past," said William Faulkner about the American South. That goes double for the former Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1998, at the start of this chilling, accomplished espionage novel, the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague decides to pick up a wanted Serbian general, Andric. As a quid pro quo, the French want Pero Matek, a Croatian war criminal from WWII, lifted from Bosnia, where he has become a minor capo. Calvin Pine, from the tribunal, travels to Berlin to contact Vlado Petric, a Bosnian ?migr? and former Sarajevo detective. Taking leave of his wife and daughter, Vlado is debriefed at The Hague, then sent with Pine to post-conflict Sarajevo. Vlado has a secret: some acquaintances of his in Berlin had recently murdered a Serbian war criminal, Popovic, and Vlado helped them dispose of the corpse. At the tribunal, a sinister American named Harkness has been referring enigmatically to Popovic's "disappearance." In Sarajevo, Pine reveals the real reason Vlado was chosen to set up Matek-unbeknownst to Vlado, his late father was an associate of Matek's during WWII. The setup fails; Matek escapes. Following Matek to Italy, Vlado and Pine rendezvous with a former American army intelligence agent, Robert Fordham, who is edgily paranoid. Fordham claims there's a deep connection between the Croats and American intelligence. Just how deep becomes clear as the pair close in on Matek. This tight, intelligent thriller by the author of the well-received Lie in the Dark chillingly describes a world in which justice is always a negotiation between highly compromised alternatives, and history burdens every player-except for the executioners. (Sept. 30.) Forecast: Fans of Alan Furst, John le Carr? and James Buchan are the natural audience for this fine sophomore effort. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Cuban American Esmeralda Navarro Montoya can't remember a time when she didn't know about the family business, La Estrella-the only Cuban-owned casino in pre-Castro Havana. Esmeralda chalked up her parents' talk of the casino as nostalgia until her mother reveals a dream that predicts the return of La Estrella to the family; the only catch is that all five Navarro children need to be together. When it seems that her sister has disappeared, Esmeralda launches an investigation that soon turns deadly. It's clear that Esmeralda will need all the luck she can get if she and her sister want to live long enough to see La Estrella again. Garcia-Aguilera's eighth novel (after One Hot Summer) will appeal to a broader readership than just the fans of her "Lupe Solano" mystery series; with romance, danger, and the history of the Navarro family, there's something for everyone. While the plot is occasionally far-fetched and the conclusion a bit too hasty, the engaging story of Esmeralda's search for her sister ends on a deliciously open-ended note, sure to have readers hoping for another book. Recommended for all public libraries.-Amy Brozio-Andrews, Albany P.L., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Baltimore Sun foreign correspondent and crime novelist Fesperman (the award-winning Lie in the Dark, 1999) brilliantly re-creates Cold War chill in post-Bosnian Europe. Former Yugoslav detective Vlado Petric fled the sniper terror in Sarajevo to find peace if not proper employment in Berlin, where he had sent his wife and daughter for the duration of the Bosnian bloodletting. The post-unification building boom in the German capital provides plenty of unskilled jobs for refugees, and Vlado would be perfectly happy to stay in Prussia and run his frontloader. But the international war crimes tribunal has other plans for him. American Calvin Pine drops into the Petric flat with an offer Vlado finds hard to refuse: the chance to capture Croatian Pero Matek, a major mobster with crimes in the present conflict and in WWII, when he served as a ruthless soldier for the fascist Ustasha. Pine thinks Vlado's knowledge of the territory will make Matek's arrest a simple matter. But nothing is simple in the Balkans. Vlado agrees to come only after his involvement in the disposal of the corpse of another Yugo-nasty makes Berlin too hot for him. Back in Sarajevo with Pine, Vlado begins to open not just Matek's past but his own and, more particularly, his father's. It seems Pine and his shadowy associates wanted Vlado for more than his linguistic skills. Their documents reveal Vlado's supposedly Muslim father to have been a Croatian associate of the vile Matek and a possible participant in WWII atrocities. It is no surprise to Vlado when the capture of Matek quickly goes sour and the quarry goes south. Nor is it a surprise that Matek's rural retreat was booby-trapped, causing the death of one of the good guys. What is surprising is the past revealed in Vlado and Pine's unauthorized follow-up on Matek, an effort that takes them to Italy and the murky world of the Croatian diaspora. And the corpse back in Berlin? It keeps popping up. Pray for more. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
