Synopsis (from
the publisher):
Jana and Sofia were best friends as schoolmates in communist
Czechoslovakia. Jana’s a judge’s daughter, was prudent;
Sofia, impetuous. Now, Jana, who entered the Czechoslovakian police
force, has risen to the rank of commander in the post-communist country
of Slovakia, based in its capital, Bratislava, a crossroads of Central
Europe.
Sofia, formerly a fiercely independent political reformer, is now a
member of parliament and is having a scandalous affair. When she finds
herself in a political predicament, she appeals to her old friend for
help.
One night, Jana returns home to find an enormous diamond suspended from
a string in her living room. A fabulous gift? Or, for a police officer,
a trap? Can Sofia be implicated somehow?
The search for answers leads Jana across Europe to unravel am
international criminal conspiracy that has perpetrated multiple murders
in Nepal, India, Switzerland, Hungary, and Bratislava itself and
threatens Jana’s career, family and life.
— ◊ —
— ◊ —
Dark Dreams
A
Commander Jana Matinova Mystery
Michael
Genelin
Soho Crime (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-557-1 (1569475571)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-557-7 (9781569475577)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $24.00
— ◊ —
Review: In
Michael Genelin’s second novel in the Commander Jana Matinova
series, Jana’s lot in life hasn’t gotten much better. A
young grandmother she’s still mourning the loss of her bank
robber husband, experiencing dark dreams about her dead daughter, and
struggling to survive in a cesspool of political, judicial and police
department corruption. Even the bright spots of a visit with her
granddaughter and a passionate affair with a government lawyer fade to
black when an attempted kidnapping fails and her lover appears to be
joining anti-corruption forces waging a bitter war against her.
Set in post-communist Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia,
Genelin’s novel brings a sense of dark realism to the politics of
the struggling country. Jana is on the edges of the maelstrom since her
earliest friend, Sofia, raped years ago by a now prominent political
figure, has rebounded to become a member of parliament and has had a
torrid affair with the designated deputy prime minister that has boiled
over into the national newspapers. Jana has her own problems to face.
In her rise through the ranks she’s accumulated enemies, and
someone is out to get her, even going so far as to plant incriminating
evidence of corruption and trying to assassinate her while she
investigates a series of murders, some obviously related to an
international smuggling ring. In her rough and tumble world,
Jana’s no goody two shoes. She’s not above threatening
witnesses and suspects alike, shooting alleged criminals, or bending
the law to its breaking point. On her softer side she is torn with the
threat of losing contact with her granddaughter, and falls in love with
a government prosecutor who sees her as ”the youngest, prettiest,
and sexiest grandmother I have ever seen.” Her boss, with his
fetish for collecting police headgear from around the world, is a
memorable character too. But while their relationship is a supportive
one, others of Matinova’s crumble, especially when she catches
her deputy rifling through her desk, gets caught in a cross-fire of
bullets between anti-corruption police and unidentified shooters, and
has a falling out with best-friend Sofia over her newly-found
allegiances, including her earlier rapist.
A highly competent thriller by a UCLA graduate lawyer who has worked at
the Department of Justice in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary,
Genelin’s novel is an excellent tour through the Slovakian
environs and neighbouring countries – even to scenes and murders
in Nepal, India and Switzerland. It’s an even darker trip through
the hearts and minds of warring criminal gangs, of a corrupt politician
and his even more devious wife, and of jealous lovers and rogue police
officers. It’s a slam-bang trip well worth taking if only for
Matinova’s astonishing role in the final scene in ensuring rough
justice of the direst kind is meted out to a deserving murderer who
appears to have eluded the formal justice system.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Dark Dreams and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Dark Dreams? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Siren
of the Waters
Soho Crime (Hardcover), July 2008
ISBN-10: 1-56947-484-2 (1569474842)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-484-6 (9781569474846)
Dark
Dreams
Soho Crime (Hardcover), July 2009
ISBN-10: 1-56947-557-1 (1569475571)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-557-7 (9781569475577)
The
Magician's Accomplice
Soho Crime (Hardcover), July 2010
ISBN-10: 1-56947-626-8 (1569476268)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-626-0 (9781569476260)
Omnimystery keywords for Dark Dreams ...
Location(s) referenced: Slovakia.
