Customer Reviews

The Confession

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Steinhauer's latest novel, The Confession, proves that his first critically acclaimed novel Bridge of Sighs was neither an accident nor a flash in the pan. With his second mystery based in communist-era eastern Europe, Steinhauer displays his continuing growth as a novelist, and his considerable ability to mix the psychological tension of his characters, and plot. The emotional backdrop of the story is the deteriorating marriage of his main charcter Comrade Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar, and all the angst, betrayal, paranoia, and helplessness that comes along with this. While Kolyeszar struggles to learn the identity of his wife's lover, he takes up the case of a murdered artist. The keynote crime in Steinhauer's first novel was the killing of a proletarian songwriter. That the deaths of a social realist art dealer, painter, and the painter's former lover form the core of this mystery is great fun, and allows Steinhauer to explore of of literature's most compelling themes: the mercilessness of art, and flawed, complex nature of the world's most prevalent form of justice -- vengeance. The Confession is multi-layered, but Steinhauer skilfully balances these subplots and cleverly brings them together at the story's fascinating conclusion. A rarity among mystery writers, Steinhauer is both a gifted writer and storyteller. He has created a corking mystery peopled by extraordinary and rare characters. His prose is eloquent and stiletto sharp. As another Amazon reviewer has pointed out, Kolyeszar's alienated and defiant posture in this mystery is not new to the crime genre. But Kolyeszar is a fresh face, and impressively real. Nothing he does in The Confession is anticipated. Like the very best novelists Steinhauer constantly surprises. Although Steinhauer does not name his east European nation, he also gives a sense of life in the dreary, disappointing, and cynical post-war years of the East Bloc that few histories have been able to capture.

The result is one of the best crime novels to emerge this year. The second instalment in a five-part series, The Confession elicits only one response: impatience for books three, four and five to hit the shelves, and a keen hope that somewhere Olen Steinhauer is typing as fast as humanly possible.

Now turning thirty, seven years has passed since an idealistic Emil Brod joined the police force as a Comrade Homicide Detective, but now by 1956 he is like his peers, grim and ever looking over his shoulders at the KGB representative. Emil has learned survival means trust no one and gingerly investigate whenever the Party is involved.

Meanwhile Police Officer Ferenc Kolyeszar prefers to be a novelist, but in this small Communist nation getting anything published is controlled by the Party. Though Ferenc has talent his résumé shows one paperback. Now he writes a book about the depressing world of artists representing Everyman behind the Iron Curtain. Any creativity typically leads to work camps that even in the post Stalin era remains dehumanizing and deadly. Besides the censorship that haunts Ferenc, he suffers remorse over a recent assignment involving college students. As he investigates the murder of a party bureaucrat, KGB agent Kaminski watches Ferenc looking forward to destroying the wannabe author.

This 1950s Communist police procedural is a terrific tale that provides the audience with insight into life inside a Soviet satellite country just after the death of Stalin. The strong story line surprisingly relegates the hero of the first novel (BRIDGE OF SIGHS) to a cynical secondary role. This allows comparison to Ferenc, a tragic Shakespearean character who knows that his latest case will personally cost him dearly; yet he cannot adapt to the party line especially after he carried out a recent assignment to bash the heads of protesting college students. This is a great Eastern European Communist historical police procedural that should provide Owen Steinhauer a strong fan base.

Harriet Klausner

This is an ambitious attempt to produce a combined psychological novel and Chandleresque mystery novel. As with all Chandler-type novels, the hero is an alienated individual seeking some kind of truth in a corrupt milieu. In this case, the corrupt milieu is an Eastern European Communist state. This is not an original version of the Chandler idea, Martin Cruz Smith did this fairly successfully in Gorky Park and Phillip Kerr has a series of good PI novels set in Nazi Germany. Steinhauer attempts to combine this style of mystery novel with psychological exploration of the effects of totalitarian rule. This attempt is not successful. Steinhauer is a decent writer but presently lacks the skill to bring off a complicated task like this. The mystery per se suffers from excessively complex plotting and characterization is only moderately good.

For me Steinhauer's series of book's started out great and slowly devolved to where I can no longer read them. This is one of the good ones. He evokes the cold war and eastern Europe better than any other author I know. Its this evocation that makes these books stay with you long after you've read them. The characters are full of the sad tragedy of their world but seem to rise above it all to become fully realized humans. Highly recommended.