Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski, translated by Danusia Stok

Rating

* * * * *

The book's description from the publisher's website:

Introducing one of the most stylish and moody historic detective series ever: The Inspector Eberhard Mock Quartet.
Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate. But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence. And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades...

This was one crazy ride. I've been reading thrillers/mysteries/crime fiction for many years now. Therefore I'm not exactly a novice in this department. With my conscience clean and easy, I would place Mr. Krajewski's historical crime  novel among the best in this genre and beyond. Beyond, since Death in Breslau is one of those gems that blur the boundaries between several genres and display in front of a reader serious literary talents of the books' creators. And such indeed is the case with Death in Breslau. It is rightly called noir, with all the characters exhibiting various stages of moral and ethical decomposition. No superhero cop rising above corruption and other earthly traps will be found here. This one truly is a gritty, hardcore murder investigation set in a world of brutality, violence, death and ambiguous morals, a world where you either eat or get eaten. And sometimes not until your last breath do you know whether you're dying as prey or predator. 

Hidden within the folds of the crime novel is an unexpected treasure of historical fiction. Marek Krajewski paints a fascinating portrait of interwar Breslau, a German name for the city of Wroclaw, Poland, then under German occupation. It's a little embarrassing to admit but despite having been born and years later lived my wildest college years in my beautiful Wroclaw, I'd shown precious little knowledge or appreciation for the history within the brick walls of buildings, cathedrals, little side alleys and bridges (Breslau really is perceived by many as a city of islands because the rivers cut through it from all sides) that were part of my life a few years back just as they became the setting for Death in Breslau and a part of the lives of Inspector Mock, Herbert Anwaldt, other policemen, Gestapo officers, debauched aristocrats and prostitutes. Despite the gruesome murders and an uneasy atmosphere inundated with foreboding of what evil was yet to come (WWII), despite that ethical and moral decay slowly taking root in all who become entangled in the search for and the hiding of the truth, Mr. Krajewski gave us beauty too - the architectural beauty and the natural charm of Breslau, this majestic city that to this day retains all the appeal and is as a matter of fact rapidly becoming the cultural center of Europe. I'm waxing nostalgic here but hey, Wroclaw is and always has been worthy of every ounce of nostalgia poured over it :D.

Most importantly, in a true spirit of crime fiction, the plot is captivating and you'll find yourself utterly engaged in looking for the killer/s along with Eberhardt Mock and his sidekick from Berlin, Herbert Anwaldt. It's especially worthy of praise how the book's author developed these two characters who while playing the roles of 'the good guys' are probably the two most morally ambiguous people in the whole story. Mock and Anwaldt belong to the grey world of the 'not wholly good but not entirely evil either' human beings. Because of that, these two elements (totally my term of endearment) are also the most realistic characters in this story. Why, you ask? Because humans are nothing, if we're not morally ambiguous. Those Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Segal cop characters belong in the fantasy world that is a close and good neighbor of Disneyworld. They do not exist. Mocks and Anwaldts, on the other hand, very much so.

I'm very happy and very excited to see that the Polish literary crime world counts among its ranks such a talented writer as Marek Krajewski. His prose is smart, intelligent but never ostentatious or, goodness forbid, condescending. When I was reading Death in Breslau, I was experiencing a creation of  a confident writer, who knows where he belongs on the crime fiction and literary scene and  who is fervently carving out a permanent place among the talents of the European Noir. He deserves it too.

A Note On Translation

Death in Breslau has been translated from Polish by Danusia Stok. Ms. Stok is a very accomplished and skilled translator bringing Polish books to the UK market for quite some time. I believe she is less known in the American publishing market, an unfortunate situation which I greatly hope is in the process of being remedied. Her translation of Krajewski's novel was really good, the potential obstacle or challenge of dealing with German names and phrases and Latin sayings sprinkled throughout, all to never break the flow of the narrative in the translation of the main text seemed to not have been a challenge at all. Danusia Stok is the necessary half to Krajewski's in forming a literary tandem to give the English world a hearty bite of the Polish mystery genre.

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FTC: I received an e-galley of Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski from the publisher, Melville House via Edelweiss.

Just to give you a glimpse of Wroclaw, here are a few photos for your enjoyment

This is University of Wroclaw, my alma mater.

Inside the main building of the University, there is this astonishing room in which I got officially immatriculated into the folds of University of Wroclaw.

The Raising by Laura Kasischke

The book's synopsis from the publisher's website:

Last year Godwin Honors Hall was draped in black. The university was mourning the loss of one of its own: Nicole Werner, a blond, beautiful, straight-A sorority sister tragically killed in a car accident that left her boyfriend, who was driving, remarkably—some say suspiciously—unscathed.

Although a year has passed, as winter begins and the nights darken, obsession with Nicole and her death reignites: She was so pretty. So sweet-tempered. So innocent. Too young to die.

Unless she didn’t.

Because rumor has it that she’s back.

I enjoyed this literary thriller thoroughly. It's my first Kasischke book so I didn't know what to expect, which is good in a way because I was pleasantly surprised. It's a very atmospheric story, the suspense is building pretty much from the very beginning and keeps the reader on the edge. I liked the characters' portrayal the most probably. Very well done. Some of them are nasty as hell and I was hoping they would get what they deserved, especially those sorority girls who thought they were above it all. Others, such as Shelly, the lesbian professor who was just the wrong person at the wrong time, or Craig, the poor boyfriend who fell for the wrong girl,  elicited a lot of sympathy and I was really rooting for them. The Raising definitely woke up a lot of different emotions in me, which I appreciated.

What I didn't appreciate and what ultimately brought the whole novel down a few notches for me was the ending. It completely threw me off  how quickly everything was wrapped up with really not much resolution or closure. Almost as if the author either got tired of writing the book and just rushed to the ending or too tangled up in the suspense and didn't know how to successfully finish it. It was very anticlimactic, felt rushed and even though I liked the whole novel,  The Raising would have been one of the top books for this year if it weren't for that dissatisfying ending.

I am willing to give Ms. Kasischke another try though, because I liked her style of writing and her skill with building the right amount of suspense. It was an altogether a pleasant experience since The Raising didn't just concentrate on the death mystery but the academia dynamics which I always find interesting, the sorority life and politics which I hate but found fascinating to read about. Let me tell you, there was a lot of injustice going on there and maybe that's why I was so disappointed with the ending, because no amount of justice was meted out at all.

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The Raising by Laura Kasischke will hit the stores this Tuesday, March 15th.

I received an e-galley of this novel via NetGalley from the publisher, HarperCollins.

2-in-1: The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor & Matched by Ally Condie

1. The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

The book's synopsis from the author's website:

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge

They say Jerusalem is haunted by Mrs Whichcote's ghost. Frank Oldershaw claims he saw her in the garden, where she drowned. Now he's under the care of a physician.
Desperate to salvage her son's reputation and restore him to health, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs her own agent - John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts, a controversial attack on the existence of ghostly phenomena. But his arrival in Cambridge disrupts the uneasy status quo. He glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the Master, Dr Carbury, ever could.


But Holdsworth's powers of reason and his knowledge of natural philosophy have other challenges. He dreams of his dead wife, Maria, who roams the borders of death. Now there's Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife, to haunt him in life. And at the heart of it all is the mystery of what really happened to Sylvia Whichcote in the claustrophobic confines of Jerusalem.


Why was Sylvia found lying dead in the Long Pond just before a February dawn? And how did she die? Indeed, why was she at Jerusalem, living or dead, in the first place?

It was an okay book for me. It took too long to get into the whole murder mystery and despite there being more than one secret to reveal, I just couldn't get myself very interested. The Anatomy of Ghosts is considered a literary thriller and maybe I'm just not that big of a fan of this particular genre. There is definitely a lot more to the story than simply solving the murder case. The whole little society of scholars living on the grounds of Jerusalem College (a fictitious part of Cambridge University) seems to be almost drowning in secrets. The characterization is not bad really. No one's character seems to be really spotless and the ones that do, turn out quite the opposite at some point in the story.

I actually liked the ending quite a lot and this is what redeemed the whole novel for me. The action picked up as the mysteries started to get revealed, one by one and I didn't see the outcome of the murder coming at all. Fans of literary thrillers will probably like The Anatomy of Ghosts a lot, as well as history fans since it was interesting to read about the life in Cambridge in the 18th century. But if you're just looking for the swift plot and quick action, it's probably not a book for you.

2. Matched by Ally Condie

The book's synopsis from the book's website:

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

It was a nice read, very quick, it can be easily read in one day, if the time allows. The concept of the dystopian society where everything is controlled, including the nutritional content of the food one eats, and no one stands out is interesting and scary. I hope it will never come to that in real life (I think that teenagers, if no one else, would rebel sooner or later, unless there's something in the food that makes them docile and not interested in asking questions and seeking answers). Ms. Condie did create a convincing, if frightening, reality.

What I didn't like was the love triangle. I think this part of the plot is what usually keeps me away from the YA books. Call me a bitter cynic or something, but the sappiness of it all just put me off and was the barrier keeping me from fully enjoying the story. And Cassie was another problem. Her cowardice throughout most of the book was annoying and I'm just glad she showed some guts in the end. All and all, it was an all right book and young readers will definitely enjoy it.

2-in-1: Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein & The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott

1. Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

This is Garth’s debut novel written before The Art of Racing in the Rain. It tells the story of Jenna Rosen and her husband Robert in the aftermath of their son’s untimely and tragic death.  One day Jenna decides to leave her life and go to Wrangell, Alaska which is a hometown of her Native American grandmother. It also located very near the resort where Jenna’s six-year-old boy drowned two years ago.  Now Jenna wants to put all her doubts, pain and past to rest but instead she learns of mysterious Tlingit Indian legend of death, shape shifting and the creation of the world that may open a whole new door of frightening possibilities that Jenna might not be strong enough to deal with. And she still has a failing marriage to fix that she thought she left behind for good.

Raven Stole the Moon is Mr. Stein’s shot at magical realism and while it’s not perfect, it definitely is worth reading. The animals play an important role in this story, just like in The Art of Racing in the Rain and we get to see how human relationships are never easy and how complicated we all really are. The beginning was a little difficult for me to get into as I was questioning where the story was going but I ‘got it’ soon enough and let myself enjoy the book till the end. I also did shed a few tears here and there. Being a mother myself, I couldn’t help feeling sad over Jenna and Robert’s losing of their son. Jenna’s dealing with the death is especially heartbreaking.  All and all, it’s a good story and even if it lacks here and there (I think the problem is that The Art of Racing in the Rain was just so awesome that it invites comparisons which will always, inevitably fail on the side of his debut work), I think you should still give it a try especially if you’re interested in magic realism and Native American mythology.


Please visit the website, GoEnzo.com to watch Garth Stein talk about Raven Stole the Moon. It's very interesting what he has to say.

                          
2. The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott 

This book takes us to post-revolutionary Paris of 1815. It’s also post-Napoleonic as the emperor is on his way to the island of St. Helena as an exile.  Daniel Connor is just beginning his journey as a medical student from Edinburgh. He enters Paris with a quite unfortunate story to tell. His naiveté cost him dearly as he got robbed by a mysterious woman. But instead of money, she stole the corals, letters of introduction and a manuscript of his mentor’s. All of these items were supposed to be delivered safely to the famous Dr. Cuvier. But now that they’re gone, Daniel’s career is in jeopardy and his despair makes him think of turning back in shame to Edinburgh. But Paris enchants Daniel with its free thought. And the thief comes back into his life to show Daniel that nothing is black and white in life and in science. She is indeed a philosopher and a scientist herself but became a coral thief for a deeper purpose than just stealing for profit.

Stott’s first book, Ghostwalk, was a huge disappointment to me, so I honestly didn’t expect much from The Coral Thief either. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, it still is not a novel that will appeal to everyone. There is a lot of unnecessary passages to seem to have no purpose and stall the plot a bit but overall, the writing is quite good and I really liked Lucienne, the coral thief. There was just something about her, maybe her spirit, her courage or just her personality, that really appealed to me and I think held the whole story together. And one more important thing is that Ms Stott really transported me to 1815 Paris. I felt I walked among the young and restless minds who questioned everything (including the revolution and how far it went and how many lives it cost) and wanted to know more and learn more.

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Make sure to come back on Sunday. I will be giving away my copy of Raven Stole the Moon + a red umbrella you can see on the cover of the book, a courtesy of the publicist.

I received Raven Stole the Moon from Sarah D., Terra Communications for a review.

I won The Coral Thief in the LT Early Reviewer program.

2-in-1: Andean Express by Juan De Recacoechea & Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

1. Andean Express by Juan De Recacoechea, translated by Adrian Althoff

This is a crime/mystery novel written by a Bolivian author and set in 1952. The action takes place on an overnight train journey from La Paz (which is the administrative capital of Bolivia, the country that has two capital cities and the second one is Sucre), through the Andean plateau to the coast of Chile.  Innocent enough when it starts, the journey turns deadly to one of the passengers and everybody concerned seems to have some kind of issue with the one person that will soon be murdered. There are too many characters to list but they all play important roles and no one is truly as they seem.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading Andean Express. Never having read any Bolivian fiction before, I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a small novel with quick action and even though the crime seems to be at the forefront, it really serves as the background to the Bolivian society of the fifties in a capsule. There are people involved that represent almost every walk of life, from a recent high school graduate, a miner, a politician to a shady businessman. We have a prostitute, a woman scorned and a young girl seemingly sold into an unwanted marriage. Truly a cornucopia of personalities and it was a delicious feast to read about them all. I enjoyed the author’s sharp language, humor and a prose that’s very much to the point.

The best part though, and I’m not sure if it’s something representative of South American crime fiction or not, was that the murder actually goes unpunished because everyone agreed that the person that died fully deserved their fate and there’s no need to seek justice. The justice has just been dealt. Very much unlike North American crime fiction that I read where the murderer is always found and punished regardless of the motives. I must say it was a breath of fresh air and I will gladly look for more.

 
2. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

This one is more of a literary thriller than a crime fiction. We are introduced to several characters. There’s Miles, searching for his schizophrenic twin brother; Ryan, who just found out he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, and Lucy, a fresh high school graduate who leaves her hometown behind and goes off with her history teacher in search for a better and more exciting life. All of their lives come together in unexpected and somewhat shocking ways.

I wish I could say more what this novel is about but the way it’s written begs for not divulging too much because it may quickly spoil the plot for those who have yet to read it. There is a lot of mystery surrounding all of the characters and the end may indeed come as a surprise to most readers. The whole novel has to do mostly with our identities, what are they and how fragile they really are, how easily discovered, destroyed and rediscovered or reinvented. The whole atmosphere of the book reminded me the most of du Maurier’s writing although not so much the evocative prose as the mystery and the mood permeating the whole novel. I did like it but I wasn’t as impressed or crazy about Await Your Reply as some other reviewers. In the words of Randy Jackson, “It was just okay Dawg”.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

You know how you sometimes buy books based purely on the opinions of others or the buzz that's being created about a specific title? Well at least I do. Sometimes I don't even read the full description or synopsis and just 'go with the flow'. With some books, it works surprisingly well. With others, not so much. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott unfortunately turned out to belong to the latter group. And I really mean 'unfortunately' because I had high hopes as far as this novel was concerned because of how many people were talking of it in positive terms when it just came out.

Lydia Brooke, a writer and a historian, returns to Cambridge for a funeral of another historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang. Elizabeth was close to Lydia in two ways. She helped her with research for a book and she also happened to be a mother to Cameron Browne, a former lover of Lydia. The death of Elizabeth is deemed either a suicide or an accidental drowning but Lydia knew her to be a person who wouldn't kill herself and as more details are revealed, accidental drowning sounds fishy (forgive the pun) as well. It turns out that Elizabeth was working on a biography of Isaac Newton and his life not as a scientist but an alchemist, a label all other Newton experts refuse to pin on him. She never got to finish the book and now Cameron asks Lydia to finish it. As Lydia delves deeper and deeper into the world of seventeenth century Cambridge and of alchemy, she realizes that there is a lot more to Elizabeth's death and that finishing her book may not be an easy task. She also realizes that when she finished her relationship with married Cameron years ago, she never really was quite done and soon their love life starts afresh as if it never ended. Lydia has some personal revelations to deal with while real danger lurks and some other forces she's not fully able to explain appear to hinder her work to finish the book.

Simply put, I was not impressed with Ghostwalk at all. I'm not sure what Ms Stott tried to accomplish here and from the looks of it, Ms Stott might not know herself. It's supposed to be a fiction book, with made up contemporary characters and real persons from the seventeenth century including Isaac Newton. The idea of Newton meddling with alchemy was very intriguing to me and I think it would have worked had the author not included pages upon pages of the supposed biography of Newton within the novel. So there I was reading a ghost story, mixed with a love story when all of a sudden I get blindsided with chapters that seemed to be taken straight out of a very boring non-fiction book on glassmaking, Newton's life written in a very dry tone that could put a night owl to sleep. That's why I think that the author wasn't sure what Ghostwalk was supposed to be. It's as if she couldn't decide whether to write a fiction or non-fiction, so why not do both. It's just that for me it didn't work at all.

Another thing that didn't work for me was a first-person narrative. In general, I think it's no easy feat to pull this off and Rebecca Stott probably shouldn't have used it for her debut novel. Because of Lydia narrating the whole story, there pretty much is no character development present. Besides maybe Cameron, all other characters fall really flat and evoked in me zero emotions. I just couldn't bring myself to care for someone who felt like a stenciled puppet not a true person. Also, while there is a ghostly atmosphere here and there,Ghostwalk has really not much to do with ghosts and apparitions and if you're looking for a horror story, this is not one. The only thing that I did like were the descriptions of Cambridge which made me really yearn for visiting it one day. But that alone wasn't enough to redeem the whole book in my eyes.