Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools [Hardcover]

Australian Browne's second mystery to feature the worn-at-the-edges Italian Interpol agent maintains the high standard set in The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders (2001). When 16 business executives die in what should have been an impossible-to-achieve explosion, Anders, who thought his fieldwork days were over, is sent to investigate. The Judgment Day group claims responsibility, threatening more murders if corporate Europe continues to pursue the large-scale mergers that are costing thousands of jobs across the continent a threat that the group follows through on with additional bizarre crimes. Even with such deadly danger looming over them, the viciously ambitious managing directors who are targeted refuse to delay their quest for profit. Anders is left to quickly sort through a trail of false clues, while at the same time fending off his own insecurities about his ability to cope with the rigors of his job. Using little more than his intuition, he follows "The Ship of Fools," an obscure 15th-century poem referenced in each of the Judgment Day's manifestos, to expose the mad ideologue responsible. This is not a high-action or even a particularly mysterious mystery (the reader will understand the clues long before the authorities ever do), but it is well worth getting to know the endearing, self-reflective Inspector Anders. Browne admirably conveys a feeling for all the characters, even the bit players.Kelly Award for best first crime novel in 1999.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Inspector Anders, the Interpol policeman who made his auspicious debut in The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders, tackles terrorists who are targeting business executives in Europe. Baited with clues from a 15th-century poem, Anders responds by using a knowledgeable librarian as lure. Good stuff.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Life isn't getting any easier for Inspector Anders. After wiping out a roomful of Mafia chieftains in The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders [BKL My 1 01], the Italian antiterrorist expert, now assigned to Interpol, finds himself on the front lines again, tracking an audacious group of terrorists who planted a bomb in a Frankfurt boardroom, killing the executives from two soon-to-merge companies. Targeting other companies planning mergers that will eliminate jobs, the terrorists (or could it be just one person?) communicate with Anders using snippets from a fifteenth-century poem called The Ship of Fools. Working with a librarian in Strasbourg, Anders attempts to interpret the poem and thus anticipate his adversary's next move. The one-legged, battle-weary Anders is the latest in the growing list of embattled European cops (Dibdin's Aurelio Zen, Mankell's Kurt Wallander) whose appeal comes not from their strength but from their vulnerability. The bad guys are winning in the new Europe, and the cops are always one step behind. Only Browne's weakness for overblown finales keeps this series from the top of the hard-boiled European pile. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved