The Small Boat of Great Sorrows

This is actually a sequel, of sorts, to a book that I haven't read, but it's "stand alone" and the earlier book is not required to thoroughly enjoy this one. Our protagonist is an honest former policeman from Bosnia now living and working at a menial job in Germnay. He is "recruited" to help the War Crimes Tribunal from the Hague capture an old man who is accused of atrocities during World War II. He goes along because he has no choice (to find out why you should read the book), and the action becomes fast and furious. Old memories of the war's aftermath are rekindled and we go to Bosnia and eventually to Italy where the denouement takes place. I found the characters very well drawn, and the reader is quickly drawn into the plot as it races along. It's exciting reading and will keep you occupied for hours turning the pages to see how everything turns out in the end. This is a book that I highly recommend.

This sequel to Fesperman's excellent award-winning debut (Lie in the Dark) picks up Vlado Petric's story five years later, in 1998. We find the former Bosnian policeman in Berlin, where he was reunited with his wife and daughter, and has been working menial construction jobs. In a somewhat heavy-handed prologue, Vlado and his Polish construction mate unearth an old Nazi bunker while digging a trench. This serves notice to the reader that even as the foundation for a new Europe is being laid, the ugly past is always lurking just below the surface. Get it? In a more affecting early part of the story, we learn that Vlado's reuniting with his family (following the events of Lie in the Dark) was not quite the stuff of fairy tales. This ties in to a subplot in which he becomes entangled with a pair of fellow countrymen who swear to have seen a war criminal nearby. This leads him down an unlikely and unnecessary subplot, which links all too conveniently to the main story. Things really gets going when an American lawyer working for the International War Crimes Tribunal offers Vlado a job as part of a team trying to capture a Croatian war criminal from World War II. This is all part of another unlikely and overly complicated scheme to swap him to the French if they arrest a Serbian war criminal from the more recent fighting. The carrot of a visit home and a possible job are dangled in front of him, and of course he accepts. The trip to Bosnia becomes wildly complicated and dangerous, unfortunately, the pitfalls are obvious to the reader well ahead of Vlado and his handler. The story continues in Rome, and veers into even more wild territory, as dark secrets from WWII hold the power to do significant harm even now. Fesperman's plotting draws upon various real events (the theft of gold from the Croatian treasury, the involvement of Catholic priests in helping war criminals gain new identities, etc.), but it rarely feels plausible. Fesperman's strength lies in depicting modern Bosnia and the effects of the war upon its people. The book is at its most effective when focusing on Vlado and his family's life as refugees in Germany, or in showing Sarajevo recovering from the war. Unfortunately, most of the book deals in the past and ends up feeling like a Ken Follett or Robert Ludlum thriller. It's not bad, just not as distinctive as Lie in the Dark, but I'll definitely read the next installment in Vlado's story.

Dan Fesperman's first novel was the highly regarded and John Creasey Memorial Dagger winner LIE IN THE DARK. Never before had I read such an all encompassing detailed account of life in war torn Bosnia. That book ended with the main protagonist, Detective Vlado Petric fleeing Sarejevo to join his wife and young daughter in Berlin. This book starts about five years later. The war is over but Bosnia lies in ruins. Petric, living in Berlin, makes a living working as a construction worker. He receives a visit from a mysterious American, Calvin Pine, who invites him to join in on an assignment for the International War Crimes Tribunal. They want Petric to capture a war criminal in Bosnia. The assignment sounds relatively well thought out and straightforward. He agrees but soon finds it much more than he bargained for. It also calls into question his own father's role in perpetuating atrocities during W.W.II. The fact that this book was nominated for an Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller is a bit of a surprise. This is definitely not a thriller. It is more appropriate a nominee in the Gold dagger category. The style of writing is much too careful and deliberate for a thriller. The pacing is languid but the descriptions, once again, are detailed and breathtaking. Bosnia is very different today than it was when we last visited it during the war. The resilience of the people is what makes this book linger in the mind. Dan Fesperman does not rush his books into print in that it has been four years since the last one. It is definitely well worth the wait.

A friend recommended this book and I was pleasantly surprised.It kept my attention and kept me fully immersed from the beginning to end.Well written, interesting and well on par with other best selling crime/mystery writers.Am looking forward to his next book.

In this sequel to Fesperman's affecting debut, "Lie in the Dark," it's five years after Bosnian police detective Vlado Petric's escape from war torn Sarajevo. Settled, though not easily, with his wife and daughter in Berlin, Vlado works construction and scrapes by. It's not an easy or satisfying existence, so when an American - Calvin Pine - from the war crimes tribunal at the Hague offers Vlado a job, he jumps at the chance.All he has to do is help capture Pero Matek, an old Croatian war criminal from WWII, living profitably under an assumed name in Bosnia. The French want him in return for their help with a wanted Serbian general.When Vlado is let in on the secret of how he was chosen for the job, his whole world is thrown out of kilter and the mission becomes personal. Which doesn't stop it from failing in spectacular fashion, and Matek slips away, as does the Serbian general. The cat-and-mouse chase is on, with various international interests weighing in.Political compromise, cynicism and corruption dog this mission as Vlado and Pine pursue their man across borders and generations. Vlado, like (seemingly) everyone else, has his own guilty secret, which threatens his sleep and, increasingly, his safety. But the footing is uncertain everywhere and Fesperman keeps his characters hopping, dodging and feinting.There's no glory in Fesperman's wars, just blood, death, survival and, for some, opportunism. Atmosphere and the shadowy corners of the human heart - even the best of human hearts - are integral to the plot. Character and circumstance are the primary motivators and Fesperman knows how subtly each can shape the other. A Berlin reporter during the Yugoslavian wars, Fesperman writes with authority, intelligence and grace.