Murder Without Pity [Paperback]

Steve Frank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2004

Paris at the beginning of the second millennium:dark with fog, riots over police killings, and Far Right demagogues frightening the confused. Such is the milieu surrounding dogged state criminal investigator Stanislas Cassel at the Palace of Justice. However, this grandson of a French propagandist for the Nazis during their Occupation, ashamed of his family's infamy, avoids anything political. Instead, he buries himself tracking down perpetrators of small crimes, which he calls his Little Miseries. One current dossier involves a pensioner's bizarre murder. During his pursuit for the killer/s, Cassel meets a beautiful Jewish woman, whose family was shipped to a death camp in 1942. Haunted by man's inhumanity, she tries to alert him to the Far Right's reemergence, but to no avail. Only when tragedy strikes does he awake to his blindness and understand a truth: a larger evil beyond his Little Miseries, as the Occupation portended, lurks. Murder Without Pity mixes historical fact with fiction and is based on extensive research, interviews, and visits toParis. A story about the past, the present, betrayal, murder, and redemption, it is not your everyday mystery novel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...brilliantly paints a picture of haunting suspense... the most innocent walk, the most boring stake-out seems ominous." -- Lillian Brummet, Bookideas.com, April 22, 2005

"...not a simple murder mystery...explores the lasting nature of war...tense...often secretive...well worth the effort." -- Jeanette Cottrell, ebook-reviews.net, May 1, 2005

"...will hold your attention...a puzzle to keep you guessing. Recommended and guaranteed to keep you reading." Anne K. Edwards -- MysteryFiction.net, May 26, 2005

"The descriptions of a foggy, depressed city add beautifully to the drama...the characters are vivid and distinctive...exciting." -- Nancy Morris, AllBooks Reviews, May 20, 2005

In Murder Without Pity, "...the plot line moves speedily and with sufficient convolutions to keep any reader guessing at the outcomes." -- Euro-Reviews, June 28, 2007

Murder Without Pity is "...a taut, highly charged novel that looms between reality and fiction...a great read." Viviane Crystal -- Crystal Reviews, August 5, 2005

Murder Without Pity is "...a well written and timely mystery of fact and fiction." -- Booktrees & Etc, May 13, 2004

Murder Without Pity, an "intriguing" novel. -- Criminal History, For Fans of Historical Crime Fiction, December, 2004.

Murder Without Pity...an "admirable debut." -- Mystery Morgue, September, 2004

The power of the plot (of Murder Without Pity) sustains from the first page to the last....highly recommended. -- Boggle Books, June 3, 2004

About the Author

A college graduate, Steve Haberman pursued legal studies at UCLA before becoming a lawyer's assistant. Investments in stocks made travel possible, and he has since visited Europe extensively. A favorite city remains the City of Light. The Paris he writes about in his novel isreal, though also of the imagination. Anything can happen. An unseasonably thick fog sweeps in without warning and blinds. The metropolis becomes a nonplace of half-light and shadows. Nothing is what it appears. Is a murder more than it seems? Are the harmless truly harmless? Are suspects really culpable? Who can you trust? And are you sure? Such is the shifting wildness his criminal investigator Stanislas Cassel must wander through to solve a Murder Without Pity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (January 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410740528
• ISBN-13: 978-1410740526
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,091,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Twists!, October 4, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder Without Pity (Paperback)

Although Murder Without Pity comes advertised as a mystery, it is something more. It is also a history book, if one can accept the literary license the author takes with history. Steve Haberman weaves World War II into his current-day Paris setting and the reader feels the tension of the days of Nazism throughout the book.

State criminal investigator Monsieur Stanislas Cassel is the grandson of a French Nazi collaborator. Cassel is ashamed of his past and strives to avoid anything that exposes it. He prefers to assure his low profile by immersing himself in his work of solving small crimes he calls his Little Miseries.

Cassel finds himself investigating the murder of an elderly man whose eyes, even in death, reflected his terror at the last image he saw. A connection between the man's death and elderly Nazi collaborators hiding out in Paris must exist, because the closer Cassel gets to discovering the murderer, the more he feels the pressure of his own family shame.

He meets a Jewish woman who lost her family in the World War II death camps, becomes fascinated with her, then learns she knows about his grandfather's collaboration with the Nazis. Even though she knows his dark family secret, she attempts to alert him that the Far Right political faithful are becoming active once again.

Reviewer Sharron Stockhausen served two terms as president of Twin Cities (Minnesota) Sisters In Crime.

Armchair Interviews says: If you're looking for something different in a whodunit, consider Murder Without Pity. Haberman offers some interesting twists as he connects the fifty-plus years of history with mystery.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I threw the book away! Can I rate it as Negative 2 stars?, June 20, 2006

By 

LYB "lyb1021" (Elk Grove, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder Without Pity (Paperback)

For the first time in my life, I actually threw a book away. The people who rave about this book must have read a different book than I have, because this is very likely the worst book I've ever read. I wanted to like it and kept reading it but it didn't have the feel of Paris and the story was too way out there for me. It felt like a science fiction book and maybe that's why I didn't like it, I don't like science fiction.

After a while, I gave up on it. Reading this book felt like a painful high school English reading assignment. I decided that there were too many good books out there that I wanted to read. I wasn't wasting any more time on this book. I was going to give the book to someone else, but I didn't think it would be fair to punish anyone else. I finally just threw the book away, and I don't give any books away. I still have paperbacks that I bought 20 years ago! But this book...uggh....

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder Without Pity, July 5, 2005

By 

Anne K. Edwards "AKE" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder Without Pity (Paperback)

Title: Murder Without Pity
Author: Steve Haberman
Publisher: 1stBooks
ISBN: 1410740528 (Paperback)
Genre: Mystery

The investigation into the murder of Leon Pincus has been given over to Stanislas Cassel to investigate and determine whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant arresting someone as the murderer. Monsieur Cassel is lured into at trap and told not to question one particular witness too deeply and to put his efforts into other cases.

While very human and able to fear his captors, once they leave him and he returns to his office, Stanislas determines to carry the case through to a logical conclusion and catch the killer. By telling him not to ask too many questions of Monsieur Boucher, an old man who had been a collaborator with the Nazis during their occupation of Paris, the effect is exactly the opposite of what the threat meant to have.

Stanislas begins to investigate in earnest and uncovers many old secrets and bring him face to face with his own family history. The question of whether Monsieur Pincus was killed because of an old secret or did it have something to do with new unrest being fueled by an influx of foreigners is one that Stanslas must answer and his search brings him into contact with a wide range of well drawn characters whose lives you will believe will resume once the case is solved.

The dark mood created by talented Steve Haberman fits perfectly the mood of a nation seeking a sense of security and stability while manipulative power grabbers use the threat of immigrants to urge people to follow them. A history lesson that could be taken from newspaper headlines, a story that could have a foundation in reality. A read that will hold your attention as it unrolls a puzzle to keep you guessing. Recommended and guaranteed to keep you reading. Enjoy.