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rosseroo's review
4.0
Exiled Czech writer/publisher Skvorecky wrote a sequence of four books featuring Prague homicide detective Lieutenant Boruvka, set around the time of the "Prague Spring" of 1968. Each book is a series of shortish (20-30 page) stories about a particular case. However, they proceed in chronological order and build upon each other, so before picking this third volume up, you've ideally read the first two: "The Mournful Demeanor of Lieutenant Boruvka" and "Sins for Father Knox." I didn't know all this and read this on its own, and while it holds up just fine, its also clear that there are references being made to past events and people.
The framework for the Lieutenant Boruvka's investigations is that while they are classic murder mysteries in the sense of staging, clues, suspects, witnesses, etc... and he is able to arrive at the truth -- he is never able to "solve" them, because to do so would be to expose the endemic corruption and hypocrisy of the communist system. It's an interesting blend, because as people in the cases are experimenting with LSD and broader sexual mores, they do so in a police state with nasty anti-Semitic and other undercurrents.
The cases involve a dancer who may or may not have committed suicide, two young women mysterious gunned down in a field, an exhumed skull, the bashed in skull of a candy delivery driver, and dead old eavesdropper. Even as the plots are cleverly revealed and a certain sardonic humor is to be had, there's a sad undertone to it all, as a society struggles under the oppression of its own leaders and the tanks of the USSR. The stories are definitely worth reading by anyone who likes crime fiction and has an interest in the era.
The framework for the Lieutenant Boruvka's investigations is that while they are classic murder mysteries in the sense of staging, clues, suspects, witnesses, etc... and he is able to arrive at the truth -- he is never able to "solve" them, because to do so would be to expose the endemic corruption and hypocrisy of the communist system. It's an interesting blend, because as people in the cases are experimenting with LSD and broader sexual mores, they do so in a police state with nasty anti-Semitic and other undercurrents.
The cases involve a dancer who may or may not have committed suicide, two young women mysterious gunned down in a field, an exhumed skull, the bashed in skull of a candy delivery driver, and dead old eavesdropper. Even as the plots are cleverly revealed and a certain sardonic humor is to be had, there's a sad undertone to it all, as a society struggles under the oppression of its own leaders and the tanks of the USSR. The stories are definitely worth reading by anyone who likes crime fiction and has an interest in the era.
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