A detective thriller or a cop novel which delineates the critical investigative process is thoroughly satisfying but when the narrative is also sharp and sensitive to the aspects of life entwined in a murder, the novel becomes a spectacular achievement. Vlado is the Inspector of Police who is entrusted the sensitive case of investigating the murder of the chief of the Interior Police Esmir Vitas. It could be anything, a sniper’s stray bullet, a retaliatory gesture from the gangs which were ruthlessly suppressed by Vitas or a carefully plotted murder to eliminate a shrewd Policeman. He has to carry out an impartial investigation to convince the U.N.
This is a detective novel set against the backdrop of the grim Bosnian Civil war, in a city of the dead ‘Sarajevo’ which has been abandoned by all resourceful people, except those who have not been fortunate and those who control the strings of power.
Life is living in slime, grime, dust and hunger. There is no food, no coffee, no water, no electricity or gas. There is the turmoil of the Civil war which has devastated everything. People have started to trade in cigarettes, coffee, alcohol or gasoline. You could be alive in the morning but dead by the evening.
Vlado takes his task seriously, digging into the mysterious dealings of the Interior police chief. An old art house expert Milan Glavas gives him what it is all about; the smuggling of paintings and art pieces out of the country and there is big bucks involved. Vlado realizes that he is too deeply involved in a quagmire which would eventually suck him in. He is helped out by a Western Journalist Toby and works out a brilliant plan to get out of the country, replacing himself instead of a painting inside the luggage crater of a plane.
Though it is not very racy, it has a rhythm which is not altogether about the pursuit of a murder/murderer but about the flickering of life amidst a chaotic environment of hate and bloodshed that shattered Yugoslavia. (To be continued)