Customer Reviews

Murder Without Pity

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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.

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....

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.