Confession-Steinhauer [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Olen Steinhauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

In 1956 during the Hungarian revolution, with the entire Eastern Bloc on edge, Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar must track down a murderer. Drawn deep into an underworld of betrayal and violence, he finds that he is not so different from those he pursues.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ferenc Kolyeszar, the main character in this sharp tale of murder, political intrigue and human failings, is a large, disillusioned police inspector with a weakness for drink and cigarettes. Narrator Dean's naturally deep, gravelly voice works well in that context, but the rest of his performance is uneven. The novel takes place in an unnamed Eastern Bloc nation in 1956, and it centers on a series of converging discoveries by Kolyeszar and his colleagues. As Moscow asserts an increasing influence in the country, their office and their personal lives become charged with distrust and fear, a sense that becomes more pronounced as they draw closer to unveiling a dire secret. Dean has a clear sense of drama and narrative pacing, and he wisely steps back and allows Steinhauer (The Bridge of Sighs) to set the progressively nervy tone. But while he renders most of the male characters believably—albeit without much nuance—he struggles with females and with sustaining any voice that's said to have an idiosyncrasy. The production is spare and straightforward, but the engrossing story makes up for the recording's slight imperfections.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* In 1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalinism. Amid the heady optimism of short-lived strikes and protests, a general amnesty for political prisoners is declared, and old injustices are roused as vengeful retributions. Down at People's Militia Headquarters, Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar is faced with an apparent suicide, the missing wife of a prominent Party member, a charred and brutalized corpse, and the watchful eyes of a newly arrived official from Moscow. Then there's the imminent collapse of his marriage: an old friend and fellow officer appears to be cuckolding him, while Ferenc nurses some latent obsessions of his own, sexual and otherwise. The story of a troubled homicide detective wrestling with internal and external demons is hardly new, but seldom is it presented with such depth and personal intensity. Beyond delivering an involving police procedural in an intriguing setting, the author relates with spare irony his narrator's psychological journey through the vexatious complexities of marriage and totalitarian life, drawn toward the deceptive clarity of brutal action. This second installment in a loosely linked series (following last year's Bridge of Sighs) is enthusiastically recommended for fans of well-made hard-boiled and noir fiction. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786126574
• ISBN-13: 978-0786126576
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 2.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,731,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Olen Steinhauer grew up in Virginia, and has since lived in Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Massachusetts, and New York. Outside the US, he's lived in Croatia (when it was called Yugoslavia), the Czech Republic and Italy. He also spent a year in Romania on a Fulbright grant, an experience that helped inspire his first five books. He now lives in Hungary with his wife and daughter.

http://www.olensteinhauer.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary mystery ... Steinhauer grows as a novelist, March 3, 2005

By 

Sandy Steele (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Confession (Hardcover)

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.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting historical police procedural, March 1, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Confession (Hardcover)

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

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious But Not Outstanding; 3.5, July 11, 2004

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Confession (Hardcover)

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.