Finished Dan Fesperman’s Life in the Dark, a Black Lizard imprint about Vlado Petric, a police detective in Sarajevo during the Bosnia-Serb war of the 1990s. I previous read Small Boat of Great Sorrow, the second Vlado Petric novel. That was good. This one was better, mainly because of the surprise ending which I never anticipated, and which I would defy anyone else to guess.

I love detective novels in a foreign setting, like those by Henning Mankell. Sarajevo was certainly unique, with the Serbs in the mountain regularly shelling the city, and Vlado having to dodge sniper fire as he went about investigating a criminal conspiracy. Then the daily hassles of finding food and other necessities. The lack of gas, communications, food, heat, and general sanity.

Fesperman, a journalist who covered the conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, created a truly unique setting for a detective novel. Chaos reigns throughout Sarajevo, making Vlado’s every effort complicated. When this particular ending arrived, coming out of a left field I’d never seen before, it dismayed me a little bit. And yet, as I thought about it, I realized, “There’s no better way for this book to end.” And I find that I can’t stop thinking about it.