Emil and the Detectives
Dec. 22nd, 2020 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: The Bridge of Sighs, by Olen Steinhauer
Like The Flanders Panel, this was another of the books that had been on my to-read list for years. In that one, aspects of the conclusion were quite disappointing. In this one, it's the introduction that was a struggle. It is 1948 in some un-named fledgling Eastern European state. Inspector Emil Brod has recently graduated from the academy and has joined the homicide department of the People's Militia. But he is hardly welcomed by his colleagues, who are in turns silent and violent toward him. The most apparent explanation of their contempt is that Brod could have fought in the war, but instead spent time in Finland, with a fishing fleet; Brod lives with his grandparents, as both his parents died in the war. The correct explanation emerges later in the story.
A case arrives for Brod when songwriter Janos Crowder is found dead in his apartment. Another death follows quickly, and though Brod has plentiful clues, they do not make sense, and he receives little help from his colleagues. As the layers are unpeeled, the story becomes clearer, and Brod eventually travels to Berlin to discover the source of events in a city divided and whose Western sectors are under constant supply by airlifts. Brod returns home, but the conclusion evades him for a while yet.
Underneath, I found this quite a good story, but the initial violence and meandering in the first third or so made it easy to put down, and difficult to keep going. The final conclusion is clever, and quite ironic, but it takes an effort to reach it.
Like The Flanders Panel, this was another of the books that had been on my to-read list for years. In that one, aspects of the conclusion were quite disappointing. In this one, it's the introduction that was a struggle. It is 1948 in some un-named fledgling Eastern European state. Inspector Emil Brod has recently graduated from the academy and has joined the homicide department of the People's Militia. But he is hardly welcomed by his colleagues, who are in turns silent and violent toward him. The most apparent explanation of their contempt is that Brod could have fought in the war, but instead spent time in Finland, with a fishing fleet; Brod lives with his grandparents, as both his parents died in the war. The correct explanation emerges later in the story.
A case arrives for Brod when songwriter Janos Crowder is found dead in his apartment. Another death follows quickly, and though Brod has plentiful clues, they do not make sense, and he receives little help from his colleagues. As the layers are unpeeled, the story becomes clearer, and Brod eventually travels to Berlin to discover the source of events in a city divided and whose Western sectors are under constant supply by airlifts. Brod returns home, but the conclusion evades him for a while yet.
Underneath, I found this quite a good story, but the initial violence and meandering in the first third or so made it easy to put down, and difficult to keep going. The final conclusion is clever, and quite ironic, but it takes an effort to reach it.