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Overview
Praise for Michael Genelin:
“Plenty of misdirection and suspense. . . . In the end, we must acknowledge that we have been held spellbound by a master storyteller.”—Library Journal (starred review)
Prudent Jana and impetuous Sofia were best friends when they were schoolmates. One day Sofia approached a man in a car when she shouldn’t have and ended up being raped by a nefarious Communist Party bigwig. Jana pursued the culprit’s car, identified him, and vowed someday to bring him to justice.
Now Jana is a commander in the Slovak police force and Sofia, having made her name as a reformer, is a member of Parliament. Jana has fallen in love with an upright government prosecutor and Sofia is carrying on a notorious affair with a suave, married fellow MP.
One day Jana finds an enormous diamond dangling from a string fixed to the ceiling of the living room of her house. Was it put there as a present? Or, more likely, to entrap her? Where did this magnificent jewel come from? And why was it left for her to find? The answer leads Jana across Europe to unravel a criminal conspiracy involving multiple murders which has entangled her hapless, impulsive friend, Sofia, in its web, and ultimately to the criminal mastermind, the onetime Communist Party boss.
Michael Genelin is a graduate of UCLA and the UCLA Law School. He has served with the Department of Justice in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. He lives in Paris with his wife and daughter.
Synopsis
The second Commander Jana Matinova investigation set in Slovakia.
The Barnes & Noble Review
One of the best-reviewed crime fiction books of 2008 was Michael Genelin's Siren of the Waters, which introduced Commander Jana Matinova, in charge of the police in Bratislova, Slovakia. Jana, the daughter of a Czech judge, is smart and tough and enjoys her work -- even though the Communist regime has destroyed her marriage and damaged her family. Siren featured one of the genre's best villains -- a shrewd and frightening killer who was involved in shipping young Slovak women around the world as sex slaves. The villain in Dark Dreams, the second book in what could well be a long and monumental series, is equally vicious: a top politician who raped Jana's best friend, Sofia, when she was a vulnerable teenager. Jana chased the culprit s car, identified him, and vowed someday to bring him to justice. Sofia, having made her name as a reformer, is now a member of Parliament. Jana has fallen in love with an upright government prosecutor, and Sofia is carrying on a notorious affair with a suave, married fellow MP. The brisk narrative sends Jana across Europe to unravel a criminal conspiracy involving multiple murders that has entangled the hapless, impulsive Sofia in its web, and ultimately to the criminal mastermind, the onetime Communist Party boss. Genelin is a lawyer who has served with the Department of Justice in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, so he knows the turf. He also writes with a sharp, clear style that lights up his characters. When Sofia, deep in the dangerous affair with her married colleague, asks Jana if her late husband cheated on her, Matinova thinks about her life with Daniel. It had been hard, but not because of women. He had been a revolutionary, had robbed banks for his cause. A handsome man, charismatic opinionated, willful... And finally, when his world imploded, he'd committed suicide. The literal truth was that he had been unfaithful, but not in the way Sofia meant... It's hard not to see Dark Dreams at or near the top of many best-books-of-the-year lists. --Dick Adler
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Genelin's darkly compelling second Jana Matinova mystery (after 2008's Siren of the Waters) mixes equal parts lust, betrayal and murder. When Jana's childhood friend Sofia, who campaigns for an anticorruption organization called Transparency in Government, is elected to the Slovakian parliament, neither is prepared for the long-ranging and deadly consequences. Sofia's subsequent entanglement with a male colleague and acceptance of a huge diamond taint Jana's career as a commander in the Bratislavan police force, where she finds herself under investigation for corruption. As bodies begin to pile up in Slovakia and neighboring countries, Jana races to figure out the motive for the murders and their connection to a multicontinent smuggling ring before assassins do away with her suspects. Genelin ratchets up the suspense with smooth prose, evocative locales and distinctive characters who leap from the page. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
One of Jana's oldest friends, now a member of Slovakia's Parliament, embroils her in a game of cat and mouse that endangers Jana's loved ones. Will her competence and bravery be enough to save her from destruction? VERDICT In this masterly sequel to the acclaimed Siren of the Waters, Genelin vividly describes a Central European country that remains fearful and subject to political machinations despite the fall of the Soviet Union. Sure to appeal to fans of Olen Steinhauer's Emil Brod series.School Library Journal
Adult/High School
A man is killed in Nepal, and seemingly unrelated murders are committed in Bratislava, Ukraine, and Geneva. To Police Commander Jana Matinova, it begins to look as if they are all part of a multinational conspiracy. Various clues, including a diamond she finds hanging in her living room, lead to her childhood friend, now a Member of Parliament. Jana was a good friend when Sofia was traumatized at age 12, an event involving a prominent government official, the same official who now seems deeply involved with the current conspiracy. Jana becomes romantically involved with Peter, a handsome member of the attorney general's office whose loyalties she begins to question. Jana is logical and perceptive with superb deductive reasoning, putting her on a par with Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta. Genelin's characters are true to life, and the story is well crafted, with all the twists and turns of the best detective fiction. The sometimes-stilted writing style causes the story to read like a translation at times, which adds positively to the Eastern European ambience. Jana's forays into Ukraine and Austria from Bratislava, where most of the novel takes place, ring true culturally and geographically. Teens will especially relate to the friendship thread as well as to the romance, and of course to the element of danger.-Ellen Bell, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA