Lie in the Dark [Paperback]

Dan Fesperman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2000

A portrait of Sarajevo at war, telling of freelance gangsters, guilty bystanders, drop-in correspondents, bureaucrats frightened for their jobs and their lives, and of one man in deadly pursuit of the wrong people in the worst places.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Having dug into Yugoslavia's recent past for what undoubtedly was meant to be a taut whodunit, journalist and first novelist Fesperman has come up with something that reads more like a report from the battlefield than a novel. The story, unfolding against a backdrop of war-ravaged Sarajevo, concerns itself with a police homicide investigator's efforts to solve the murder of the chief of the interior ministry's special police. Fesperman describes a world of terror and disintegrating civilization; treachery, corruption, shake-downs, sniper attacks, shelling, and a staggering accumulation of daily atrocities darken every page. Unfortunately, fiction seems secondary to what can only be described as a brilliant piece of war reportageAFesperman was a European correspondent for the Baltimore Evening Sun during the war in Yugoslavia. One is left with the impression that he is using his negligible plot merely as a line on which to hang powerful and descriptive word pictures. Recommended only if another mystery is needed.AA.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The term mean streets takes on an additional shade of meaning in this riveting first novel. Vlado Petric is a homicide investigator in besieged Sarajevo, and walking any street means listening for incoming artillery and intuitively gauging snipers' lines of fire. In the chaos of war, the Bosnian Ministry of the Interior has formed a special police force that has taken over the high-profile cases. Vlado's department is left with the dregs--domestic violence fueled by madness, stress, or alcohol. But when the chief of the special police is killed and snitches hint at his involvement in the black market, Vlado is given the investigation to help convince the UN that the Bosnian government is committed to truth and justice. This is a thoroughly satisfying cop novel. What makes it special, however, is its vivid sense of place. Fesperman, a journalist who has covered the confused conflicts that are shattering Yugoslavia, gives readers the tastes, smells, sounds, and privations of everyday life and an understanding of the roots of an appallingly muddled and tragic war. Thomas Gaughan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: No Exit Press; New Edition edition (May 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901982688
• ISBN-13: 978-1901982688
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,159,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bosnia Noir, September 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lie in the Dark (Hardcover)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong debut in Le Carre field, September 3, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lie in the Dark (Paperback)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting. I want another book from this author., March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lie in the Dark (Hardcover)

Lie in the Dark is haunting, sad, gripping. Fesperman makes life in Sarajevo almost fathomable and just ordinary enough to hint that as far away as the ethnic wars may seem to anyone not caught in the line of fire,fallout from hatred is an ever present danger for anyone, anywhere. The character of Petric is compelling because he is sympathetic and decent, yet almost as out of control of his destiny as a speck of dust in the stellar winds. As he plugs on,defying evil, danger, and resignation you root for him, willing him to transcend the madness and reach some port of safety and sanity. Don't miss this book.