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    Lie in the Dark
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    Lie in the Dark
    Unavailable
    Lie in the Dark
    Ebook386 pages6 hours

    Lie in the Dark

    By Dan Fesperman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Vlado Petric is a homicide investigator in war-torn Sarajevo. When he encounters an unidentified body near “sniper alley,” he realizes that it is the body of Esmir Vitas, chief of the Interior Ministry’s special police, and that Vitas has been killed not by any sniper’s aim but by a bullet fired at almost pointblank range. Searching for the killer in this “city of murderers,” Petric finds himself drawn into a conspiracy, the scope of which goes beyond anything he could possibly have imagined.

    Lie in the Dark brilliantly renders the fragmented society and underworld of Sarajevo at war—the freelancing gangsters, guilty bystanders, the drop-in foreign correspondents, and the bureaucrats frightened for their jobs and very lives. It weaves through this torn cityscape the alienation and terror of one man’s desperate and deadly pursuit of bad people in an even worse place.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSoho Crime
    Release dateJul 1, 2003
    ISBN9781616950934
    Unavailable
    Lie in the Dark
    Author

    Dan Fesperman

    Dan Fesperman is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun and a published author of several thrillers. The plots were inspired by the author's own international assignments in countries such as Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

    Read more from Dan Fesperman

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    Reviews for Lie in the Dark

    4/5

    54 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Dan Fesperman's police procedural, 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 honest among corrupt colleagues, gangsters and drop-in newspaper correspondents in wartime Sarajevo.

      The copy of the book I read says that Fesperman is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He has a way of incorporating relevant information, (about the roots and realities of the conflict between Bosnians, Serbians and Croatians and the sometimes malign influence of the United Nations) into his plot that adds immensely to the story, but doesn't slow it down. However, you will need to have patience with the first fifty pages, as Fesperman puts in place the context.

      I totally agree with Ian Rankin, who ranked LIE IN THE DARK as "A quite astonishing first novel which injects the reader into the heart of the darkness which was Sarajevo at the height of the Yugoslav conflict."
    • 3/5
      This book is highly instructive about a war that occurred in recent years, it features some finely constructed characters and is written in competent style. I'm finding it hard to explain, even to myself, why I didn't like it much, and was counting the pages to the end. The only reason I can come up with is the basis of the plot. Without wanting to include spoilers, I'd have to say the object of the crime just didn't grab me. Possibly prophetic that the main character, upon first hearing what the fuss was all about, sounded a little bit disappointed himself.
    • 4/5
      Lie in the Dark is an interesting tale about life in war-torn Sarajevo and one police inspector's fight to win his own private war. In the beginning of the conflict Vlado Petrics's wife and infant daughter were allowed to escape to Germany. Vlado, as with all men of military serving age, stayed behind. He escaped being drafted into the military because of his employment as a policeman.
      While investigating a murder Vlado is confronted with a much bigger scandal than he bargained for. Not knowing who to trust he works alone, unraveling the mystery while the civil war continues all around him. Woven into the plot are the harsh realities of what war can do to economics, politics, families, the landscape and the human spirit.

      Right away I knew I would like this book. Fesperman does a great job describing the absurdity of investigating a murder in the middle of a war. As Fesperman says (p 2) "Vlado's task was that of a plumber fixing leaky toilets in the middle of a flood." It makes you realize that people will grasp and struggle for normalcy even if it doesn't make sense.
    • 3/5
      This solid, first-time effort for author Dan Fesperman is a glimpse into war-torn Bosnia c.1995, told from the perspective of a clever, underappreciated police detective assigned to investigate the murder of a prominent local government official. Whilt predictable comlications ensue -- our protagonist is harried by local toughies from the mob to renegade military commanders -- the prose is light and the story fast paced.