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Kim
Rating:
Review
Set in Prague during the German occupation in the 1940s, a Czech police detective, Jan Morava, and a Gestapo agent, Edwin Buback, are investigating a series of heinous murders. Most of the victims are widows, though the killer makes an assumption with a couple of his victims that lead to his undoing. Morava and Buback are both likable, surprisingly since one is a Nazi, and this is a taut thriller. I liked the bond that developed between Morava and his girlfriend, Jitka, as they seemed perfect for one another. Even the relationship that developed between Morava and Buback was remarkable, considering they were forced to work together, and again, Buback was a Nazi. I don’t read many murder mystery books, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Best Line:
“By offering another person food from your own plate, you prevent the elemental greed at the root of all wars.”
Suzanne
Rating:
Review
Here you have a great story set in occupied Czechoslovakia near the end of WWII, just as the German Reich’s grip on the nation is crumbling. A sociopath’s ritualistic serial killings throw two unlikely men together as partners - Jan Morava, a junior Prague police officer, and Erwin Buback, a German Gestapo agent. As they pursue the killer (a real sicko), trying to catch him before his next victim reaches a harrowing end, the world is changing all around them. Hitler dies and confusion reigns in the streets of Prague - what is right one day becomes wrong the next, as loyalties, morals, and human decency come into question. Both men grow considerably as the story unfolds, and both are changed by love. As a side benefit of reading this gripping novel, I learned a ton about how Czechoslovakia went from being an occupied German state straight to a Soviet satellite. Kohout’s writing is exciting and believable, probably because he lived through these events and later was an active resister during the 1968 Soviet invasion.
Best Line:
“An epidemic of obedience. The greatest scourge of mankind. (page 231) .”
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