Do You like book The Widow Killer (1998)?
This was an interesting mystery/crime novel set in the last months of the Nazi occupation of Prague. A German Gestapo agent is assigned to help a young Czech policeman work on a serial-killer case, and in the course of the investigation the two break through their political barriers and become friendly. In the end their ability to relate to each other personally provides them both with a safety net during the difficult transition as the Nazis prepare to retreat. I particularly enjoyed the reminder of how very difficult things were, even in the process of liberation.
—Lynn Weber
Terrific detective/political novel set in Prague in the dying days of WW2. The key protagonists, a young native Czech police detective and a German of Czech heritage investigate a serial murderer. The action moves between the psychopathic murderer and the two detectives trying make headway as the clarity of Germany's withdrawal from much of Europe becomes a reality. The political weight moves from the German detective - Czechoslovakia was a protectorate of Nazi Germany - to the Czech detective, while the sensitivity of these relationships and relative importance of finding and stopping the serial murderer are contextualised in a Prague that is on the brink of Civil War.Authentic and enjoyable.
—Steve
Czechoslovakia. World War II. Serial killer.One would think I would have been all over this one, all of the elements were in place for what should have been a thoroughly gripping book. I was even looking forward to reading it. Even with the setting and the story and all of the other details I should have been jonesing for, I never once got into this book. I read the entire thing, I tried to care even a little bit about any of the characters, but I absolutely could not. I kept reading in order to learn something maybe about the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, or to feel some tingle of emotion or interest for any of the people involved, but I learned nothing and I felt nothing. I hoped that reading a book by someone so involved in Charta 77 and the Prague Spring would hold my interest; sadly it did not and now I don't know if I want to read anything else by Kohout.
—El
