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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Crime Writers Ian Fleming Steel dagger Award Winner,
By
This review is from: The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Hardcover)
Dan Fesperman's first novel was the highly regarded and John Creasey Memorial Dagger winner LIE IN THE DARK. Never before had I read such an all encompassing detailed account of life in war torn Bosnia. That book ended with the main protagonist, Detective Vlado Petric fleeing Sarejevo to join his wife and young daughter in Berlin. This book starts about five years later. The war is over but Bosnia lies in ruins. Petric, living in Berlin, makes a living working as a construction worker. He receives a visit from a mysterious American, Calvin Pine, who invites him to join in on an assignment for the International War Crimes Tribunal. They want Petric to capture a war criminal in Bosnia. The assignment sounds relatively well thought out and straightforward. He agrees but soon finds it much more than he bargained for. It also calls into question his own father's role in perpetuating atrocities during W.W.II.The fact that this book was nominated for an Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller is a bit of a surprise. This is definitely not a thriller. It is more appropriate a nominee in the Gold dagger category. The style of writing is much too careful and deliberate for a thriller. The pacing is languid but the descriptions, once again, are detailed and breathtaking. Bosnia is very different today than it was when we last visited it during the war. The resilience of the people is what makes this book linger in the mind. Dan Fesperman does not rush his books into print in that it has been four years since the last one. It is definitely well worth the wait.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sequel is Solid, if Somewhat Less Distinctive,
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Hardcover)
This sequel to Fesperman's excellent award-winning debut (Lie in the Dark) picks up Vlado Petric's story five years later, in 1998. We find the former Bosnian policeman in Berlin, where he was reunited with his wife and daughter, and has been working menial construction jobs. In a somewhat heavy-handed prologue, Vlado and his Polish construction mate unearth an old Nazi bunker while digging a trench. This serves notice to the reader that even as the foundation for a new Europe is being laid, the ugly past is always lurking just below the surface. Get it? In a more affecting early part of the story, we learn that Vlado's reuniting with his family (following the events of Lie in the Dark) was not quite the stuff of fairy tales. This ties in to a subplot in which he becomes entangled with a pair of fellow countrymen who swear to have seen a war criminal nearby. This leads him down an unlikely and unnecessary subplot, which links all too conveniently to the main story. Things really gets going when an American lawyer working for the International War Crimes Tribunal offers Vlado a job as part of a team trying to capture a Croatian war criminal from World War II. This is all part of another unlikely and overly complicated scheme to swap him to the French if they arrest a Serbian war criminal from the more recent fighting. The carrot of a visit home and a possible job are dangled in front of him, and of course he accepts. The trip to Bosnia becomes wildly complicated and dangerous, unfortunately, the pitfalls are obvious to the reader well ahead of Vlado and his handler. The story continues in Rome, and veers into even more wild territory, as dark secrets from WWII hold the power to do significant harm even now. Fesperman's plotting draws upon various real events (the theft of gold from the Croatian treasury, the involvement of Catholic priests in helping war criminals gain new identities, etc.), but it rarely feels plausible. Fesperman's strength lies in depicting modern Bosnia and the effects of the war upon its people. The book is at its most effective when focusing on Vlado and his family's life as refugees in Germany, or in showing Sarajevo recovering from the war. Unfortunately, most of the book deals in the past and ends up feeling like a Ken Follett or Robert Ludlum thriller. It's not bad, just not as distinctive as Lie in the Dark, but I'll definitely read the next installment in Vlado's story.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as Strong as the First (but I am still a fan),
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Small Boat of Great Sorrows (Paperback)
After reading Fesperman's first book in this series, Lie in the Dark, I was excited and with the lubrication of a scotch or two downloaded all of the Vlado Petric novels to my Kindle (it is too darn easy). And though I enjoyed this second entry it was not as compelling or gritty as the first. In fact it was a bit clumsy with the "digging up the past" metaphors beginning with a Nazi bunker. And the chase prompted by the plot was more of a travelogue that was not very thrilling for a thriller.
Still Vlado is an interesting character and his wife and daughter have added some additional grip. That is why I stay optimistic that the subsequent efforts will improve because Fesperman has now coughed up the foundation to move forward with these characters. He remains at his best writing about the absurdities and contradictions of the former Yugoslavia and also when he slags the UN for its ineffectiveness. I remain loyal but guarded as I move to the next one.
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