Synopsis
A Spine-Chilling Thriller Set in a City under Seige
In The Monkey House, Sarajevo is a city besieged by the atrocities of war. Stadium walls that once shook with the roar of Olympic crowds have since collapsed under the screams of artillery. Police Superintendent Rosso and the ragtag remains of his Sarajevo police force, however, remain dedicated to preserving what is left of the city's civil order. In their Sisyphean quest to uphold the law, one of their key informants is mysteriously murdered in a narcotics-infected Serb apartment complex called the "Monkey House." If the homicide is proven to be the work of Sarajevo's notorious crime boss, Luka, solving the case could break the black marketeer's grip on the city. But bringing Luka to justice could also drastically change the course of this relentless war and quite possibly lead to the fall of Sarajevo.
For Rosso, a Croat whose Serbian wife is losing a battle with alcoholism and whose Muslim goddaughter may be having an affair with Luka, this case has become a life mission, not only to defeat a formidable enemy and to save his family and city, but also to redeem his own dark and bloody legacy. In The Monkey House the stakes are high for solving a wartime murder, and a young, cocky American journalist named Branson Flett is there to report it all.
Publishers Weekly
Wartorn Sarajevo provides the setting for this gripping, atmospheric thriller in the tradition of le Carr and Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. Police superintendent Rosso, a Croat and Sarajevo's "top cop," returns home from Zagreb to learn of a recent murder his ill-equipped, understaffed detective squad hasn't even bothered to investigate: of a Serbian dentistand sometime police informantfound dead in her bathtub. Luka, a dangerous warlord and black marketeer, is Rosso's top suspect, but Rosso's authority is mostly a memory of peacetime, while Luka's troops are active throughout the city. Nor can Rosso expect much help from the citizenrywhat is one more murder in a city engulfed by violence and death? Rosso's Serbian wife suggests he drop the matter as she hides in a haze of alcoholism and fear. Their Muslim goddaughter, Tanjawho may be having an affair with Lukaalso urges caution. But Rosso must stand against this rampant amorality, for very personal reasons, for his family and for his homeland. Fullerton, a Reuters reporter, steers clear of trying to explain the Bosnian conflict. Instead, he brings it to life through the hardships and dangers his characters accept as daily routinejust as, in this engaging and timely first novel, he dramatizes personal relationships every bit as thorny as the politics that have ravaged a once beautiful land. Author tour. (Aug.)