Customer Reviews

Lie in the Dark

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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."

Sarajevo, 1994. Two years into the seige on the city, death has become routine. For Investigator Vlado Petric, work consists mostly of confirming those who have died as a result of the mess the city has become. However, when a member of the Interior Ministry of Police, Emir Vitas, is found dead one evening, Vlado is convinced that it isn't the work of a sniper on the hills. The man was murdered, and Petric is tasked with finding the killer.

There are several forces at work: members of the Interior Ministry themselves, anxious to prove to the world that Bosnia can handle her own problems; U.N. soldiers and inspectors, who are reluctant to take sides in the war that is seemingly going on without an end in sight; Vlado's partner on the police, Damir, who is trying to learn how to be a cop in the middle of a war; and the citizens of Sarajevo who have had to adjust to a strange way of life. Initially Petric thinks that the killing may have had to do with black market supplies of meat or cigarettes, which have become currency in the war-torn city. But the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that black market activities are the least of his worries. The death of Vitas seems to be linked to the art world, to smuggling that took place after World War II and is now happening again in the midst of everything else going on. And though normal life no longer exists in the war, it becomes imperative for Vlado to solve this crime.

"Lie in the Dark" is the first Dan Fesperman novel featuring Vlado Petric, and I must admit that it is captivating. I wasn't sure at first what to think of the characters, but Fesperman has a way of creating an atmosphere in the way he describes both his characters and the beseiged city itself. He has also created an intriguing mystery that has surprises in all the right places.

I just finished reading Dan Fesperman's LIE IN THE DARK, first published in 1999. It is a powerful story about a Bosnian homicide detective, Investigator Petric, who tries to solve crimes while staying honest among corrupt colleagues, gangsters and drop-in newspaper correspondents in wartime Sarajevo.

The copy of the book I read says that Fesperman is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He has a way of incorporating relevant information, (about the roots and realities of the conflict between Bosnians, Serbians and Croatians and the sometimes malign influence of the United Nations) into his plot that adds immensely to the story, but doesn't slow it down. However, you will need to have patience with the first fifty pages, as Fesperman puts in place the context.

I totally agree with Ian Rankin, who ranked LIE IN THE DARK as "A quite astonishing first novel which injects the reader into the heart of the darkness which was Sarajevo at the height of the Yugoslav conflict."

From the first page the author conveys the claustrophobic and dangerous city that was Sarajevo in 1993. He does this extremely well by drawing on his experience as a war zone journalist. I love the historical mystery genre and those who contribute to it like Philip Kerr, Rennie Airth, Olen Steinhauer and now, Dan Fesperman. The fractured Yugoslavia is a complex canvass for a murder mystery but the author educates as he entertains.

Fesperman ably shows the local population and their resolve to weather a terrible existence. In the midst of the snipers, shelling, black market, gangs, and many other hardships, we are introduced to Vlado Petric one of the two remaining homicide detectives in Sarajevo. Of course, the irony of investigating murders during ethnic cleansing is lost on no one. It works as a crime novel, an indictment of the ineffectual U.N., and an introduction to the history of a disintegrated Yugoslavia. I am looking forward to the other Petric mysteries Fesperman has since turned out.

Those with no interest in world affairs may find this too laborious to read through, but for those who are seeking more understanding while being entertained, this is a jewel. Devinitely for the intelligent reader.

Sarajevo homicide investigator Vlado Petric finds his work almost as boring as his solitary life in Fesperman's debut. The siege of war has hammered the murder rate and the new special police grab any interesting cases. But the murder of the chief of the Interior Ministry's special police changes everything. The Ministry, making lofty noises about independent investigation, assigns the case to Petric.

Journalist Fesperman explores the underbelly of grim, wartorn Sarajevo - the daily privations and small defeats, like trading with foreign journalists for a jar of instant coffee, or the pang of resentment and contempt when the same journalist speaks casually of leaving. He lays out the mechanics of profit for the gangsters, black-marketers, government opportunists and schemers for whom war is a bounty.

Petric, whose morning routine begins with counting the gravediggers across the street ("his daily census of the war") never quite overcomes the irony of investigating one man's intriguing murder while other corpses pile up. But as the scraps of evidence draw him into danger, the murder becomes his obsession.

Fesperman's Sarajevo is rendered with powerful delicacy, insight and detail. The reader feels Petric's trapped longings for his wife, his old life, a normal day. People get by, a testament to human adaptability, but some - too many - feed greedily on the hardships of others. Fesperman brings all this to bear without making his story depressing or robbing it of suspense. The climax is a riveting, explosive page-turner.

This remains the most powerful of Fesperman's books - though all are incisive, thoughtful, suspenseful and highly recommended.

THere is not much that I can add to what other reviewers have said except for a personal endorsement. I read a great deal of fiction and non-fiction and long ago gave up buying any books but the exceptional ones. I am very critical and often discard books before I finish reading them.

I read this book and immediately bought my own copy. I also bought his other two as they came out - even before a test read.
It is a book I have reread twice - and loved it each time. An absolute winner.