The Widow Killer: A Novel [Paperback]

Pavel Kohout (Author), Neil Bermel (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

In the downward spiral of the Third Reich's final days, a sadistic serial killer is stalking the streets of Prague. The unlikely pair of Jan Morava, a rookie Czech police detective, and Erwin Buback, a Gestapo agent questioning his own loyalty to the Nazi's, set out to stop the murderer. Weaving a delicate tale of human struggle underneath the surface of a thrilling murder story, Kohout has created a memorable work of fiction

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The bloody ironies of World War II have inspired several fine mysteries, including J. Robert Janes's books about a German and French pair of detectives (Mannequin, Salamander) and Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. Now the noted Czech author and revolutionary Pavel Kohout adds his unique voice to this very select group.

Her placid beauty (he could describe it no other way) was even more vivid in the near-darkness; her eternally sleepy voice moved him, though she was merely explaining that she had not been waiting long; no, she had just come outside, because it occurred to her they'd have trouble finding the house. He opened the rear right door for her and then got in on the other side. What sort of rare perfume was she wearing, he almost asked, before he realized that it was the smell of soap.

That's Kohout (through translator Neil Bermel, who also did Kohout's previous novel, I Am Snowing) describing an encounter between a young and relatively idealistic Czech detective and a woman who might provide a clue to who in 1945 Occupied Prague is murdering and mutilating the widows of war heroes.

Like Janes, Kohout makes his two cops an intriguing set: the young Czech, Morava, is partnered with a Gestapo officer, Buback, who turns out to have Czech origins and a secret agenda. While ostensibly keeping an eye on the Prague police for his superiors, Buback is also helping his Czech comrades prepare for the day when Germany will be defeated. That's a lot of history and social significance for a mystery novel, but Kohout has the heart and muscle to hold it all together. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Murder and national politics became inextricably intertwined in Prague in the waning months of World War II. The murder and ritualistic mutilation of a widowed German baroness by a Czech is the lever for the gestapo to send a top police official to work with, and infiltrate, the Czech police, thought to be the last bastion and source of weapons in the occupied nation. Then a trap to catch the serial killer tragically fails, only because of a gestapo raid on the Czech police. Unseasoned Czech detective Jan Morava, with the support of his politically savvy superintendent and the cooperation of gestapo chief inspector Erwin Buback, is renewed in his determination to hunt down the killer, but he is thwarted as Allied forces advance on the city and violence breaks out on both sides. Kohout moves skillfully from the mind of the demented killer communicating with his dead mother to military and resistance action to musings about the price of loyalty and the difference between carnage committed in peace and in the name of war. Michele Leber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312252897
• ISBN-13: 978-0312252892
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,565,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electrifying--and completely satisfying on every level!, September 29, 2000

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Widow Killer (Hardcover)

This stimulating and thought-provoking murder mystery provides a unique insight into the waning days of the Nazi occupation of Prague. A vicious killer is stalking, torturing, and butchering women, and both the Gestapo and the local Prague police are searching for the killer. Both groups are also concerned with saving themselves, their country's interests, and as many supporters as they can in the confusing days at the end of the war. The psychological astuteness with which Kohout depicts both the killer and his searchers gives a credibility to this frenetic period rarely seen in fiction. Though it is, of course, easy to identify with the underdog Prague police, Kohout goes beyond mere surface characterization here to create in Morava a fully rounded character, filled with self-doubt but dreaming of a future. And with remarkable even-handedness, he also creates in Buback a Gestapo agent who is more than a caricature or an unthinking Nazi automaton. As the killer's actions become increasingly lurid in the frenzy of the final days, the reader recognizes numerous parallels with the Nazis' scorched earth policy and with the behavior of Czech partisans bent on wreaking vengeance. This insightful, carefully wrought, and fast-paced action novel with its unique glimpses of a turbulent time and place will keep you reading well into the night!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, August 17, 2000

By 

C. A. Lee (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Widow Killer: A Novel (Paperback)

Kohout's novel begins with a German baroness realizing she has just let her murderer in. This is not just a murder mystery set in history, but a shuddering allegorical tale about how we all unknowingly open our doors to evil. All of us are vulnerable to consummate evil-- call it Hitler, inexplicable acts of inhumanity-- and often all our best efforts to overcome it are met with defeat.

The novel's plot grows increasingly complex and darker as the serial killer's trail of blood deepens and stains the lives of those involved. Everyone is involved, in fact. When Germany's defeat becomes imminent, the serial killer's butchery becomes indistinguishable from the mass inhumanity of ordinary individuals swept up in political unrest. The murders are no less savage, but they become all-too-common, a haunting trail of bodies perpetrated by a vast, unstoppable death machine.

I would give it 5 stars if not for the translation, which is sometimes clunky, with odd colloquialisms interlaced throughout, making the characters sound like neer-do-wells out of cheap Hollywood movie. There is great poetry in the romantic relationships, particularly between the Gestapo agent Buback and his mistress, and the language occasionally falls short in capturing the complexity of the characters' emotions. Still, this is an engrossing, chilling story, a panoramic scope of Czech history during the Nazi occupation, the kind of book that keeps you up reading late at night.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a gripping, layered story of politics & history in Prague, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Widow Killer (Hardcover)

When I received this book for Christmas, I thought I was receiving a mystery novel. But that is only the first layer of this intriguing book. Kahout slowly and carefully pulls back layer after layer of the complex political and historical machinations occurring in Prague at the end of World War II. He frames the story with 2 primary characters, one a Czech detective, one a Gestapo agent. Kahout gives them full emotional range and views so many of the events of the last weeks of the war through each of their emotional prisms. This is a rich, deep novel that continually mines fresh perspectives of history, politics, humanity and morality at a turning point in the lives of everyone in Central Europe. The final pages, viewed from today's perspective, are particularly chilling.