I didn't read a lot of fiction during this last year. I was
on MWA's Fact Crime Edgar committee, and, since I was
juggling two jobs most of the year, when I had time out for
reading, it was one of the true crime books publishers were
sending me throughout the year.
So there were few novels, and none from 2007. That said, the
best, fairly recent novel I read for the first time was Dan
Fesperman's THE SMALL BOAT OF GREAT SORROWS. This was a
sequel to his first novel, LIE IN THE DARK, which I read in
2006.
Both books feature Vlado Petric, a Balkan policeman. In the
first he's a homicide detective in war-torn Sarajevo, living
alone because he's sent his family to Germany to wait out the
war, assigned to a investigate the murder of a high-ranking
cop. In the second, he's left the Balkans and rejoined his
wife and kid in Germany, when the UN War Crime Commission
offers him a temporary job as an investigator and assigns him
to return to his country to hunt down a WW2 Nazi.
Both books are excellent. Both are winners of CWA Daggers,
LIES won the Creasey Dagger for Best First Novel, and SMALL
BOATS the Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller.
I also read and enjoyed Rebecca Pawel's THE LAW OF RETURN,
featuring Spanish cop Carlos Tejada, set during the early
year of the Franco regime. Not as good as her Edgar-winning
first, THE DEATH OF A NATIONALIST, but very good,
nonetheless.
JIM DOHERTY
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