Book Rec of the Day 4/2/2007

Some thrillers are guilty pleasures. Not this one. The pleasure is all there—the spies, the suspense, the sinister secrets. But no need to feel guilty. Fesperman is a former reporter and an elegant, nuanced writer. Here he reunites readers with Vlado Petric, the Bosnian cop we met in Lie in the Dark (Vintage, 2000). Petric is back in Bosnia where he finds that a war crimes’ investigation has far-reaching consequences.

THE SMALL BOAT OF GREAT SORROWS, by Dan Fesperman (Vintage, 2004)

The Small Boat of Great Sorrows won the 2003 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award.