Lie in the Dark

Investigator Petric makes his living from thedead. Lately business has been slow, what with thesiege around Sarajevo. Condoned killing hasdisplaced the crime of passion; his services withthe civil police as a homicide investigator havebeen less in demand. Unluckily one premeditateddeath does land on the detective's desk - that ofthe chief of the interior ministry's police - shotdead at close range. Brilliantly rendering theunderworld of Sarajevo at war, this thrillerfollows one man's desperate, deadly pursuit of thewrong people in the worst places.


Genre: Mystery

"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. Reading this book is like being there. If Fesperman had taken me any closer to the action I'd be demanding a flak jacket. At the book's core is a police detective, a man who must deal with the conflict while never wholly understanding it, who must investigate one meaningful murder while those around him seem inured to daily slaughter. This is a humane and moving book, a great crime novel. A great novel, period." - Ian Rankin