The Confession - Tapa dura

"Postwar Eastern Europe chillingly evoked by a storyteller... who understands the relentless conjunction between character and suspense.... Good enough to suggest comparison with Graham Greene; place the author in the forefront of contemporary suspense writers..."-"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review) "This is a gripping and fully realized portrayal of a man whose strengths, flaws, struggle, and ultimate fall are emblematic of the fate of Eastern Europe itself. While skillfully developed, the intricacies of plot, particularly the story behind the diverse crimes, fade to relative insignificance in light of Ferenc's heartrending 'confession'. Densely atmospheric and strongly recommended..."-"Library Journal" (starred review) "Beyond delivering an involving police procedural in an intriguing setting, the author relates with spare irony his narrator's psychological journey.... ["The Confession"] is enthusiastically recommended for fans of well-made hard-boiled and noir fiction."-"Booklist" (starred review) "Bigger in scope... than "The Bridge of Sighs" [...Steinhauer's original and mesmerizing first mystery]... the novel makes readers wonder just what Steinhauer will do for the next book in his series..."-"Publishers Weekly" (starred review)

Comrade Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar, a proletariat writer in addition to a state militia homicide detective, is a man on the brink. Estranged from his wife, whom he believes is cheating on him with one of his colleagues, and frustrated by writer's block, Ferenc's attention is focused on his job. But his job is increasingly political, something that makes him profoundly uncomfortable. When Ferenc is asked to look into the disappearance of a party member's wife and discovers that she might have run away from her abusive husband, he wishes he could do anything but return her to him. At the same time, the militia officers are pressed into service policing a demonstration, one that Ferenc might rather be participating in, and he refuses. These two situations, coupled with an investigation into the murder of a painter by a man recently released from the camps, brings Ferenc closer to danger than ever before-from himself, from his superiors, from the capital's shadowy criminal element.