Double Blank

Paul Skenazy

There is nothing user-friendly about Khadra's writing. But if you want to peek into the dark side of a country in dissolution, there's no finer guide.
— The Washington Post

Library Journal

Superintendent Brahim Llob of the Algerian police force sets out to solve the murder of Ben Ouda, a retired diplomat who had earlier asked Llob, himself an author, for help in writing a book about the Islamic fundamentalist violence plaguing the nation. As bodies pile up, Llob's investigation leads him not only into the more squalid zones of Algiers but also into the homes and retreats of the wealthy. With the help of Ewegh Seddig, a Terminator-sized officer formerly of the National Police Academy, and Lino, a pony-tailed lieutenant quick with a quip, the superintendent tracks down the assassins involved in Ouda's execution and then the men behind a plot that threatens the democratic survival of Algeria itself. Filled with startling metaphors and a poetic yet stark evocation of a violent world, Khadra's crime story is a fitting sequel to Morituri, the first Inspector Llob mystery. Khadra is the pen name of an ex-Algerian army officer who also wrote the highly praised The Swallows of Kabul. Recommended for libraries where police procedurals are popular.-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Droll, jaded Superintendent Llob investigates the murder of a fond acquaintance from his youth. After 30 years, weary, self-righteous narrator Llob, a veteran of the Algiers police department, encounters diplomat and intellectual Ben Ouda. Decades earlier Llob had disentangled Ouda from a potentially damaging charge of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old. Now, in mysterious statements studded with metaphor, Ouda claims to possess secret documents that will shake up the corrupt cabal of Algerian powerbrokers and asks Llob's help in disclosing the information. Their meeting ends without an agreement, but with Llob's promise to get in touch with Ouda once he's decided. In the meantime, however, the old provocateur is found beheaded in his apartment, his current "boy," a beautiful teenager named Salem Toufik, cowering in a wardrobe. Llob's hopes of eyewitness testimony vanish when the young man commits suicide. Llob and sidekicks, depressed Lino and imposing Ewegh, a transfer assigned to replace the murdered Inspector Serdj (Morituri, 2003), seek leads among such varied criminal haunts as the plush but fading Belvedere Hotel and a shabby cafe called the Circle of Friends. Their investigation apparently triggers more murders among the city's criminal element, speeding the need to solve the crime. Slight as a police procedural, but a fascinating tour of a corrupt and crumbling society.