- Hardcover: 282 pages
- Publisher: No Exit Press (19 July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1901982661
- ISBN-13: 978-1901982664
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,540,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Lie in the Dark
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
What is the point of investigating a single death when your city and your country is being killed around you? For Fesperman's Sarajevo sleuth, Investigator Petric, part of the answer is that being a homicide cop keeps him out of the army and out of the front line in the hills a few miles away, keeps him in the city where he can at least phone the wife and child he has sent to safety. And part of the answer is the simple bad attitude that he shares with most other heroes of noir detective fiction, a feeling that the job has to be done, no matter how many toes he treads on. The corpse, shot at close range and left to look like a sniper's victim, is that of a senior figure in the security service, a man who used the local gangs to save the city from the Serbs and then turned on them when they got ambitious. Petric finds himself fed information by people who use him and threaten him--secret policemen, gangsters, whores, foreign journalists and black marketeers. This is a powerful and ingenious thriller, drawn from last year's headlines, but as timely today. --Roz Kaveney
Book Description
‘A début novel of immense power’ The Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read the very good Small Boat of Great Sorrows first having been given it as a birthday present. After reading it I really wanted to know more about Vlado and the past he'd left behind in Sarajevo.
I have to say, much as I liked Small Boat of Great Sorrows it was not a patch on the intense and oppresive world of Lie in the Dark, which is quite simply superb. Vlado Petric is barely treading water in the twisted, war-torn city and he struggles to the surface in a mire of corruption and fear. Putting aside the grippping story at the book's heart, it also really shocked me to remember how recently the siege of Sarajevo happened and how that conflict has been forgotten. More power to Fesperman for making us think of the very recent past. Even more power to him for making it such a gripping rediscovery.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Vlado Petric, much like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko, is a detective with the world on his shoulders. For Petric though, war torn Sarajevo and a family trying to make it through the siege, it's perhaps understandable.
But Petric senses justice even amidst all the injustices, perhaps that's what keeps him going, as he seeks to untangle the mess that all sides have created.
I enjoyed it, very real sense of what it must have been like to live through, from a reporter who was there.
Gets better with his next book, Small Boat of Great Sorrows.
But Petric senses justice even amidst all the injustices, perhaps that's what keeps him going, as he seeks to untangle the mess that all sides have created.
I enjoyed it, very real sense of what it must have been like to live through, from a reporter who was there.
Gets better with his next book, Small Boat of Great Sorrows.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another death in the former Yugoslavia. Another person shot in the street. Worth investigating or the latest victim of sniper fire? In the crumbling city of Sarajevo, Vlado Petric takes charge of the investigation. The deceased was a school friend from years ago and also worked in law and order. What had he uncovered which led to his execution - or was he involved in something illegal himself?
The impossible difficulties of trying to work a case in a city where windows are blocked with bin liners for safety, men between the ages of 16 and 60 can be press-ganged into the army, phone lines frequently fail and the population is so scattered that witnesses are hard to track down, are all detailed in this exciting book. The scenes where Vlado helps a new neighbour and his family whose apartment has been shelled is a simple act of decency in a war torn city, and his relationship with a working girl - forced into prostitution through poverty - is touchingly described.
Some may find the war details - Serb against Croat against Muslim - difficult to follow as the tinderbox that held strong under the rule of Tito blows apart and sets neighbour on neighbour - too intense to take in, but this is a worthwhile read and would make a cracking film!
The impossible difficulties of trying to work a case in a city where windows are blocked with bin liners for safety, men between the ages of 16 and 60 can be press-ganged into the army, phone lines frequently fail and the population is so scattered that witnesses are hard to track down, are all detailed in this exciting book. The scenes where Vlado helps a new neighbour and his family whose apartment has been shelled is a simple act of decency in a war torn city, and his relationship with a working girl - forced into prostitution through poverty - is touchingly described.
Some may find the war details - Serb against Croat against Muslim - difficult to follow as the tinderbox that held strong under the rule of Tito blows apart and sets neighbour on neighbour - too intense to take in, but this is a worthwhile read and would make a cracking film!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The heart of darkness that was wartime Sarajevo
Dan Fesperman's LIE IN THE DARK was first published in 1999. It is a powerful story about a Bosnian homicide detective, Investigator Petric, who tries to solve crimes while staying... Read more
Published 6 months ago by G. John
A War Zone Brought to Life
I can recall watching news items on the Sarajevo siege in the 1990's, it came across as a frightening war zone. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Glen1975
A facinating plot in an historical moment of our history !
It tooks me time to start the reading of this book. I was not really into a plot taking place in Sarjevo, during the war. But once I had started it, I could not leave it. Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2001
Slow read with no excitement
This book was billed as a 'great crime novel' and had excellent recommendations from such authors such as Ian Rankin. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2000
Insdpector Petric a brilliantly constructed character
This is a really impressive first novel, and I was surprised by the author being able to pull off the investigating of one murder in the midst of all the dying in Sarajevo. Read more
Published on 23 July 2000
law and order over chaos
It seems so absurd that a detective is actually investigating a murder at the time that Sarajevo is being torn apart and the inhabitants fighting just to stay alive. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2000 by Herakles
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