- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (Sep 23 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 037541472X
- ISBN-13: 978-0375414725
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 608 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #852,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
"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 emigre 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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
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 © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sequel is Solid, if Somewhat Less Distinctive,
By
This review is from: The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Hardcover)
This sequel to Fesperman's excellent award-winning debut (Lie in the Dark) picks up Vlado Petric's story five years later, in 1998. We find the former Bosnian policeman in Berlin, where he was reunited with his wife and daughter, and has been working menial construction jobs. In a somewhat heavy-handed prologue, Vlado and his Polish construction mate unearth an old Nazi bunker while digging a trench. This serves notice to the reader that even as the foundation for a new Europe is being laid, the ugly past is always lurking just below the surface. Get it? In a more affecting early part of the story, we learn that Vlado's reuniting with his family (following the events of Lie in the Dark) was not quite the stuff of fairy tales. This ties in to a subplot in which he becomes entangled with a pair of fellow countrymen who swear to have seen a war criminal nearby. This leads him down an unlikely and unnecessary subplot, which links all too conveniently to the main story. Things really gets going when an American lawyer working for the International War Crimes Tribunal offers Vlado a job as part of a team trying to capture a Croatian war criminal from World War II. This is all part of another unlikely and overly complicated scheme to swap him to the French if they arrest a Serbian war criminal from the more recent fighting. The carrot of a visit home and a possible job are dangled in front of him, and of course he accepts. The trip to Bosnia becomes wildly complicated and dangerous, unfortunately, the pitfalls are obvious to the reader well ahead of Vlado and his handler. The story continues in Rome, and veers into even more wild territory, as dark secrets from WWII hold the power to do significant harm even now. Fesperman's plotting draws upon various real events (the theft of gold from the Croatian treasury, the involvement of Catholic priests in helping war criminals gain new identities, etc.), but it rarely feels plausible. Fesperman's strength lies in depicting modern Bosnia and the effects of the war upon its people. The book is at its most effective when focusing on Vlado and his family's life as refugees in Germany, or in showing Sarajevo recovering from the war. Unfortunately, most of the book deals in the past and ends up feeling like a Ken Follett or Robert Ludlum thriller. It's not bad, just not as distinctive as Lie in the Dark, but I'll definitely read the next installment in Vlado's story.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Crime Writers Ian Fleming Steel dagger Award Winner,
By
This review is from: The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Hardcover)
Dan Fesperman's first novel was the highly regarded and John Creasey Memorial Dagger winner LIE IN THE DARK. Never before had I read such an all encompassing detailed account of life in war torn Bosnia. That book ended with the main protagonist, Detective Vlado Petric fleeing Sarejevo to join his wife and young daughter in Berlin. This book starts about five years later. The war is over but Bosnia lies in ruins. Petric, living in Berlin, makes a living working as a construction worker. He receives a visit from a mysterious American, Calvin Pine, who invites him to join in on an assignment for the International War Crimes Tribunal. They want Petric to capture a war criminal in Bosnia. The assignment sounds relatively well thought out and straightforward. He agrees but soon finds it much more than he bargained for. It also calls into question his own father's role in perpetuating atrocities during W.W.II.The fact that this book was nominated for an Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller is a bit of a surprise. This is definitely not a thriller. It is more appropriate a nominee in the Gold dagger category. The style of writing is much too careful and deliberate for a thriller. The pacing is languid but the descriptions, once again, are detailed and breathtaking. Bosnia is very different today than it was when we last visited it during the war. The resilience of the people is what makes this book linger in the mind. Dan Fesperman does not rush his books into print in that it has been four years since the last one. It is definitely well worth the wait.
4.0 out of 5 stars
loved this book,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Hardcover)
A friend recommended this book and I was pleasantly surprised.It kept my attention and kept me fully immersed from the beginning to end.Well written, interesting and well on par with other best selling crime/mystery writers. Am looking forward to his next book.
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