Requiem for a Gypsy

Starred review from May 23, 2011
Genelin once again makes present-day Slovakia a compelling backdrop for murder in his superb fourth novel featuring Police Commander Jana Matinova (after 2010's The Magician's Accomplice). At a high-profile party hosted by Oto Bogan, a financier with political aspirations who fears assassination, a gunman opens fires, killing Bogan's wife, Klara. Since Matinova witnessed the attack, she's officially excluded from the investigation, but she finds a way to involve herself and explore the theory that Klara was the intended victim all along. The death of an elderly Bogan relative in France may be connected with the hit, and the disappearance of Bogan and his son complicates a knotty plot that ranks as one of the series' best. Martinova pursues the truth in Berlin and Paris to her peril. Genelin's no-nonsense lead will appeal to fans of strong female detectives such as Kinsey Millhone, V.I. Warshawski, and Jane Tennison.

June 1, 2011

Nazi progeny, scamming gypsies and an ice pick–wielding assassin besmirch Slovakia. 

Commander Jana Matinova (Dark Dreams, 2009, etc.) accompanies her boss Colonel Trokan to Oto Bogan's birthday gala, where shots fell Bogan's wife Klara, injure Trokan and miss Oto only because of Jana's swift action. While Trokan recuperates, Madam Prosecutor Truchanova and her minions make little headway despite their access to the confidential Rostov Report suggesting ties to World War II financial irregularities. But Jana, launching her own investigation, learns that there were two gunmen who may have targeted both Bogans, possibly set up by master criminal Makine. While she's at home reading up on another case, the perhaps not accidental death of a Rom (gypsy), a near-frozen waif appears at Jana's. Lonely and missing her granddaughter, Jana admits her. Her lapse in judgment will make her vulnerable to (1) several sets of tails as she travels from Bratislava to Vienna to Berlin to Paris and back again and (2) several attempts on her life, including a spectacular shootout at a German zoo that claims two dirty Munich cops and a Turkish criminal. Meanwhile, Oto is again targeted for death. It seems that he was part of a menage à trois with Klara and her ex-husband, Radomir Kralik, and that trio had been buying up European banks and greedily siphoning off vast sums. All will be clarified when Jana discovers the connections between a hit-and-run victim's tattoo, the dreaded WWII Hlinka Guard and the Rostov Report. 

Jana, one of the more intriguing characters in fictional thrillerdom, makes fallibility seem like a virtue.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Once again, a compelling and intricate case for the Slovakian detective (The Magician's Accomplice).

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
The fourth mystery featuring Commander Jana Matinova of the Slovakian police begins with the murder of a businessmans wife. But was the assassin trying to kill the womans husband? As usual for Jana, the case isnt simple, and this one takes her to Berlin, Paris, and Vienna. Following the trail, she comes to see that this case ties in with a mysterious murder in Paris and with the painful history of Slovakia during World War II. As in The Magicians Accomplice (2010), Jana has a civilian assistant, this time a teenage girl, Em, whom she takes in during a winter storm. One of the most intriguing characters in the novel, Em is an outstanding liar with a mysterious but definitely criminal past and an unerring ability to turn up wherever Jana happens to be investigating. This is one of the better international mystery series currently available. Make sure to suggest it to readers who also enjoy the European police novels of Helene Tursten and Donna Leon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)