4.5

Every British writer of book or TV mysteries will eventually get around to writing an episode about Serbian war criminals making their way into the country, and the specter of war crimes that come with them. This book is McDermid's shot at the same topic, and as often is the case, it's just a way to show off a lot of historical knowledge while borrowing from the gravity of those events.

That makes for a lot of exposition. A LOT of exposition. Add an unexpected layer of romantic dreaminess on top of that, and you end up with an eminently skimmable book. And that's what I did. I skimmed a lot of that exposition.

This is my fourth McDermid book, and the first three were excellent, so I'm assuming this is just a bad idea dragged out at length & that her other books are great. In the meantime, this is a good one to skip.

I had a little bit of trouble identifying what was going on with Maggie's first person narrations - it took longer than I wanted to realize they were the past. But woof! The ending is rough. I didn't realize this was #3 when I picked it up; hoping for more backstory by reading #1 and #2.

The topic is also challenging because it deals with war crimes in the Serbian wars. I also enjoyed reading about Maggie as a geographer because I'm currently working on my second bachelor's degree in geography, and it's so important to so many disciplines.

This is my first Val McDermid novel. She is an author I have been meaning to read for a long time, and this particular book has had many positive reviews. It was not what I expected, however.

Karen Pirie, in charge of the cold case unit with Scotland Police, has to investigate the murder of a man eight years earlier after his remains are found on the roof of an abandoned school in Edinburgh. Parallel to her investigation is the story of Professor Maggie Blake, a geographer at Oxford who has been mourning the unexplained disappearance of her Croatian lover, Mitja Petrovic. In the meantime, two men from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) are investigating a series of assassinations of ICTFY targets, assassinations thought to have been carried out by Petrovic. Eventually all three plot strands converge.

The mystery element is rather unsatisfying. There is a small cast of suspects so the identity of the murderer is obvious. Pirie’s investigation makes no missteps and encounters no dead ends, so solving the case is very straightforward. The book’s publisher tagged the book as a thriller, but the use of “thriller” is an exaggeration. There is some suspense but very little danger, and the pace, until the final chapters, is slow.

For me, it is the historical element that is the strongest. We learn a great deal about the conflict in the Balkans in the early 1990’s, mostly from a Croatian perspective. Professor Blake was in Dubrovnik during its siege in 1991, and we read excerpts from her proposed book about her time in the Balkans. Her descriptions of the massacres explain why the leaders are being investigated by the ICTFY and charged with war crimes.

The book’s examination of justice is also interesting. Pirie is obviously trying to bring a murderer to justice, and the ICTFY is trying to ensure that justice is done for the victims of wartime atrocities. But it soon becomes apparent that some people seek a more personal form of retribution. There are many skeletons to be found in the Balkans, skeletons crying out for justice, but the road between them and justice is anything but straight and smooth. And do skeleton roads ever end? The ethnic cleansing of the Serbs by the Croats and Nazis 50 years earlier served as an impetus in the 1990’s Balkan wars so it is certainly believable that the latter conflict influences events 25 years later. And, of course, the former Yugoslavia is only one part of the world which has skeletons crying out for justice. Is there a “foolishness of thinking we can keep the darkness at bay” (404)?

This novel is identified as one of McDermid’s standalone novels, but I’ve come to learn that Karen Pirie has appeared in two previous books. It would definitely not be surprising if she shows up again. There is much about her personality and tough, no-nonsense approach to investigations that appeals. In the end, events in Pirie’s personal life take the forefront, events that will have most readers wanting to know more about her future.

Though the mystery element is predictable, its historical aspects and thematic explorations make this book a good read.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though it was a bit slow to start. I love how it weaved international intrigue throughout a relatively straightforward mystery. Karen Pirie is a great character - smart, assertive, emotionally detached, but entirely lovable.

The story centers on a skeleton found in the roof of a historic building in Scotland and draws in some academics who were involved in the conflicts in the Balkans in the 90s and the ineffective International Criminal Court. The narrative comes together quite slowly as the story is told from two povs - Karen and a professor whose partner went missing 8 years prior. Additionally, there are two lawyers from the international war crimes court on the hunt for an vigilante assassin who has been picking off some of the war criminals who have escaped justice. This was a complex mystery with a satisfying conclusion.

Without a doubt this is the best thriller I have ever read—so grateful to the author giving us an overview of the Balkan wars and atrocities in a way that wasn’t too overwhelming or overly complicated, which is difficult in regard to Eastern Euro politics, while also focusing on plot so that you want to keep reading.

Another good chase through history and conflict. Gripping story.

However, the last few pages never happened. Refuse to accept that.