The Bridge of Sighs

Rating:
Summary: Cold War Murder in Eastern Europe
Review: A not altogether convincing murder mystery set in an unnamed Eastern block nation shortly after WW II. Our hero is the new guy in the pricinct, who lives with mom and dad. A thorough nebish, who, by the end, solves the crime, earns the respect of his hostile comrades, defeats powerful antagonists and gets the girl. So she's over the hill and an alcoholic. It's still a victory. I wonder if they move in with his folks? The narrator is excellent, though the tale is flawed. He has an attractive voice, and makes a brave stab at portraying the transition of our hero from schlepper to mensch.

Rating:
Summary: Fans of LeCarre and Greene should take note
Review: In 1948, the aftermath of WW II remains on every street in this tiny eastern bloc nation shrouded behind an Iron Curtain. Though Communist and Russian controlled, murder remains a crime so twenty-two years old Emil Brod is proud when the State selects him to become a rookie homicide inspector. However his comrades, his chief comrade, and the security inspector treat him like a pariah because he safely "hid" in Finland rather than fighting the Nazis.

After a few days of the silent treatment with only filing for work, Emil's boss Chief Moska assigns him to investigate the murder of state songwriter Janos Crowder. Excited, Emil looks around the crime scene and interviews the apartment supervisor Tudor who found the body. Emil realizes the case has top-level connections so Moska assigned it to him to get rid of the newcomer. Later, Moska informs him that Tudor has also been killed. Now partnered with a veteran cop, who punched him in the testicles on his first day, Emil continues to make inquiries knowing that this could be his last investigation.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS is a robust historical police procedural that vividly brings to life Eastern Europe in the early Soviet days. The story line contains a strong investigation that alone will hook the audience, but the ensemble cast especially the detectives turn this mystery into a triumph that fans will want to read. Readers will anticipate Olen Steinhauer's second novel in what appears will prove to be one of the better cop series of this decade.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: robust historical police procedural
Review: In 1948, the aftermath of WW II remains on every street in this tiny eastern bloc nation shrouded behind an Iron Curtain. Though Communist and Russian controlled, murder remains a crime so twenty-two years old Emil Brod is proud when the State selects him to become a rookie homicide inspector. However his comrades, his chief comrade, and the security inspector treat him like a pariah because he safely "hid" in Finland rather than fighting the Nazis.

After a few days of the silent treatment with only filing for work, Emil's boss Chief Moska assigns him to investigate the murder of state songwriter Janos Crowder. Excited, Emil looks around the crime scene and interviews the apartment supervisor Tudor who found the body. Emil realizes the case has top-level connections so Moska assigned it to him to get rid of the newcomer. Later, Moska informs him that Tudor has also been killed. Now partnered with a veteran cop, who punched him in the testicles on his first day, Emil continues to make inquiries knowing that this could be his last investigation.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS is a robust historical police procedural that vividly brings to life Eastern Europe in the early Soviet days. The story line contains a strong investigation that alone will hook the audience, but the ensemble cast especially the detectives turn this mystery into a triumph that fans will want to read. Readers will anticipate Olen Steinhauer's second novel in what appears will prove to be one of the better cop series of this decade.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Edgar nominee historical mystery
Review: In Eastern Europe, 1948, twenty two year old detective Emil Brod is given his first murder case for the People's Militia. A famous patriotic songwriter is killed in his home. As Emil investigates the murder he realizes there may have been a political reason for the killing. While questioning the upper hierarchy of the party, he is suddenly suspected of being a spy. With death being the penalty for a convicted spy, Brod now finds his own life in danger. He can expect no help from his colleagues in the People's Militia. Emil, with so much at stake, cannot abandon his search for the truth.
THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS is a period piece historical novel with a major strength being the descriptions of the locale- the exact location of which is unknown. Characters almost play a supporting role to their surroundings. The author keeps things in proper perspective, however, as the plot moves quickly to its clever ending. With the strong reliance on the almost unbearable oppression of the people, one immediately recalls the historical dramas of J. Robert Janes and LIE IN THE DARK by Dan Fesperman. Very well done.

Rating:
Summary: An ambitious concept that is well handled by Steinhauer
Review: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS by Olen Steinhauer is the debut novel of an ambitious series that begins in 1948 and is set in post-World War II Eastern Europe. The name of the country is not specified but it could be called Everyland. Torn apart by both allies and enemies, the names of these small European nations have come and gone from the headlines, yet the people there continue to struggle with rebuilding and coming to terms with their own identity.

Should they be grateful to their Russian "Liberators" who saved them from the terrifying hands of Nazi storm troopers? Or should they be suspicious of their liberators when they see promises being broken, living conditions becoming worse every day and the sickle of Communism cutting a swath through their already meager existence? These citizens of Everyland experienced the Iron Curtain and all the secrets that lay behind it; many are still struggling with the aftermath of their "liberation" fifty years later.

On his first day as a homicide detective, 22 year-old Emil Brod felt misplaced. Freshly starched uniform, highly polished shoes and naiveté just did not fit in with the rumpled and wrinkled regulars sitting around the dingy squad room of the People's Militia. His various attempts to become acquainted with his fellow inspectors got him nothing but pointedly ignored, verbally threatened and literally hit hard below the belt.

Being a police detective is a tough job under the best of circumstances and seldom do they get to work under the best of circumstances. From Dirty Harry and his conflicts with the politically motivated Captain to Andy Sipowitz being dragged kicking and screaming into political correctness, it's definitely a challenging job. But when a young man tries to do that job in a country where lawlessness and corruption are primarily practiced by the authorities, he really has his hands full. Not to mention that he has to ride the tram to his crime scene and has not even been issued a gun!

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS is not a story with easy answers and happy endings. It will be uncomfortable for those who recall the Cold War era and may be confusing for those who did not experience it. However, the strength and determination of the young detective is analogous to the courage and fortitude of those in Everyland who are still seeking their rightful place in the world. It is an ambitious concept, well handled by Olen Steinhauer.

--- Reviewed by Maggie Harding

Rating:
Summary: By the Book
Review: The Bridge of Sighs takes place in a very unique time and place -- post WWII (1948) and in a tiny Eastern block country. It's wonderful how the hero of our story, Emil Brod, is relentlessly nailed to the wall right from the beginning. He starts a new job, everybody hates him, and things at home -- living with his grandparents -- aren't exactly great, either. And it gets worse before it gets better.

In a nutshell, this is a wonderful by-the-book detective story, though the by-the-book-ness is perhaps its weakest point. The story has been told a million times before -- the woman in trouble, the corrupt official, the hero going through the ringer before overcoming the villain. I just wish Steinhauer would have gone slightly off the formula to keep it a bit fresher.

But that's a very minor complaint. This is a superbly novel with identifiable, realistic characters and a plot that just keeps on moving. Steinhauer can flat-out write: look for a tightly constructed chapter near the middle of the book where he intercuts a flashback (Brod's fight with his arch enemy aboard the ship) and present-day action (a hooker trying to get Brod's attention). Artful, beautiful, perfect.

Rating:
Summary: By the Book
Review: The Bridge of Sighs takes place in a very unique time and place -- post WWII (1948) and in a tiny Eastern block country. It's wonderful how the hero of our story, Emil Brod, is relentlessly nailed to the wall right from the beginning. He starts a new job, everybody hates him, and things at home -- living with his grandparents -- aren't exactly great, either. And it gets worse before it gets better.

In a nutshell, this is a wonderful by-the-book detective story, though the by-the-book-ness is perhaps its weakest point. The story has been told a million times before -- the woman in trouble, the corrupt official, the hero going through the ringer before overcoming the villain. I just wish Steinhauer would have gone slightly off the formula to keep it a bit fresher.

But that's a very minor complaint. This is a superbly novel with identifiable, realistic characters and a plot that just keeps on moving. Steinhauer can flat-out write: look for a tightly constructed chapter near the middle of the book where he intercuts a flashback (Brod's fight with his arch enemy aboard the ship) and present-day action (a hooker trying to get Brod's attention). Artful, beautiful, perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Good Post-WWII Crime Novel
Review: The immediate aftermath of WWII-notably the dropping of the Iron Curtain-provides the mental landscape for this brooding mystery set in the unnamed capital of a fictional central European nation. The story commences with fresh-faced 22-year-old Emil Brod reporting for duty at the homicide squad of the people's militia. As a teenager he fled the war and worked as a fisherman in Finland only to return home to find his parents dead and his small country under Soviet occupation.

In this setting of scarcity and political opression, his first case is the murder of a prominent writer of patriotic songs. The motive is murky, as are some suspicious photos he finds hidden in the songwriter's apartment. As the investigation progresses and apparently leads toward powerful people, he has to decide whether or not his colleagues are trustworthy, and just how far he wants to pursue the case. Further complicating matters is his attraction to the songwriter's rich, estranged wife, who reminds him of the beauty and comforts he briefly glimpsed in the West.

The main plotline of "dark secrets at the highest levels" is not particularly original, nor is the inspector's affair with the wife, however Steinhauer does an excellent job of putting everything together in crisp prose and a compelling setting. The country's atmosphere of suspicion and tension are captured very effectively, and Brod is a convincing novice inspector, lurching across the landscape in his quest for the truth. He's a policeman with a lot of guilt, pain, and ambivalence, but without the world-weariness often prevalent in such characters. Those who like Alan Furst's work, or Philip Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy, or Pavel Kohout's "The Widow Killer" should all enjoy this dark debut.

Rating:
Summary: Fans of LeCarre and Greene should take note
Review: There's already a couple of plot summaries here, so I won't add to the pile, except to say that THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS succeeds brilliantly in presenting a fresh new take in a genre in which we thought we'd seen all it could offer.

Fans of the pinnacle works of John LeCarre and Graham Greene should take note of Steinhauer. THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS evokes a deep understanding of that cold, bitter world behind the iron curtain, but with a modern sensibility of encroaching history soon to pass. I found myself unable to put this book down.

With its taut, lean storytelling, complex characters and dark, foreboding atmosphere, the book begs to be made into a film - hopefully one that doesn't diminish the book's strengths, as this novel promises to be the first in a vital new series. I await the next instalment with great anticipation.
Jake Steele