Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Strong debut in Le Carre field, Sep 3 2000
To the friends of Vlado Petric, his job as homicide detective in Sarajevo during the recent civil war was that "of a plumber fixing leaky toilets in the middle of a flood, an auto mechanic patching tires while the engine burned to a cinder." Wait until the end of the war, they said. All the suspects will be dead by then. Vlado would agree with them, but in his inner mind he knew differently. His job was his last link to the life he knew before the war, before his wife and young daughter became refugees living illegally in Berlin. For now, he moves through the long days, marking the shifting tide of the war by counting the graves being dug in the soccer field below his apartment window and tackling the occasional murder that was not caused by a sniper.Petric's assignment to investigate the death of a high police official is meant as proof to the local U.N. officials that the city is still functioning. The well-marked trail -- that the official was on the take and was killed when he demanded too much money -- was meant to lead to a quick report and possibly the arrest of some unfortunate. But they didn't reckon on Sarajevo's last honest detective. Petric's investigation leads him deep into the black market economy where cigarettes function as currency, gasoline is sold in glass liter bottles and where men are not above putting the hurt on police officers asking too many questions. "Lie in the Dark" is a strong mystery debut by Baltimore Sun journalist Dan Fesperman that rediscovers the morally shaky worlds of Graham Greene and John le Carre on the bomb-shattered streets of Sarajevo. Fesperman covered the war and writes about life in Sarajevo with the confidence and knowledge of a native. But he does more than report on what he saw. "Lie" is a beautifully written, sad elegy to a city in agony, and Petric emerges from the pages as a whole man, with his strong curiosity, an aching need for his family, and imbued with the very real fear that one misstep, either on Sniper Alley or while questioning a witness, could lead to an unmarked grave on a soccer field.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Entry in the Detective in War subgenre, May 11 2000
A brilliant entry in the "Detective at work while war rages around him" subgenre, this book takes place in war-torn Sarajevo of the mid-1990s. Investigator Petric has managed to avoid being drafted into the Bosnian army due to his job as a police detective. However, since the war started, he's had few interesting cases, as a branch of the interior ministry has expropriated much of his domain. When he is handed a highly sensitive case, all clues lead to an easy conclusion, one that he suspects he is supposed to deliver. As his inquires progresses, the haunting nature of daily life in a city under siege is brought into sharp relief, as is the power of the various gangs controlling commerce, and the corruption of what nominal authorities there are--including the U.N. Fesperman manages to convey a sense of the multiethnic complexities of the city and conflict without becoming too preachy (although an exchange 267-268 comes across as a stilted high-school debate, rather than an actual conversation), as well as the personal depression of individuals. While at times Inspector Petric seems awfully naive and forthcoming in his information, and the ending relies on a somewhat unlikely trick, this is a very satisfying crime novel in a unique setting. Another book with the same setting and premise--somewhat less skillfully executed--is John Fullerton's "The Monkey House."
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Bosnia Noir, Sep 7 1999
By A Customer
Dan Fesperman puts a great twist on the standard police procedural by setting "Lie in the Dark" amid the shady urban chaos of a grim, war-weary Sarajevo. The hero Vlado Petric has the absurd position of being a homicide investigator in a city where death and lawlessness have become the norm. While investigating the killing of a high-ranking official, he struggles against warlord-like black marketeers, renegade generals, ethnic prejudices and the overall dysfunction of his besieged city. It's a fascinating setting for a mystery, and Fesperman uses it well to spin an intrguing tale. On the downside, the plot is a little too linear, but Fesperman more than makes up for this with a great lead character and evocative prose. And aside from the mystery, we get a worm's-eye, human view of the confusing Bosnian Civil War, which Fesperman covered as a correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. "Lie in the Dark" is as grim and bleak as noir gets, so any fan of the genre will be sure to enjoy it. Hopefully Fesperman will use this setting again for his next novel.
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