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Liar Moon by Ben Pastor (view source)
Revision as of 13:56, 18 December 2011
, 13:56, 18 December 2011no edit summary
Bitter Lemon Press specialises in publishing translated crime fiction from around Europe and beyond. However, Ben Pastor is an Italian woman who lived for over 30 years in the US and her novels are originally written in English. I enjoy crime fiction from other countries but I did like the fact that I could read about a different setting without having to wonder whether the translation fully reflected the original.
In Liar Moon, as in the predecessor, Pastor moves into telling her story without a lot of explanation of the historical background, which is quite complicated, and I felt a need to research online to properly understand the story and the setting (as I did with [[Lumen by Ben Pastor|Lumen]] ) – in 1943 a new Italian government deposed Mussolini and switched sides to join with the Allies instead of fighting with Germany. The Germans had responded by invading and taking control of northern Italy, and were keen to keep the trust of their Fascist supporters there, despite significant differences of policy and emphasis over issues such as the treatment of Jewish people in Italy.
The characters in this book are more interesting than the plot, especially Martin Bora himself. Pastor has created a hero who is a representative of an evil regime, yet he is in his way a human being, who has principles but must compromise them in his day to day work. This time Pastor has created a second central detective character, Sandro Guidi, and much of the story is told from his point of view, including his perceptions of Bora, a man he finds difficult to work out. In the context of the politics at this time in Italy’s history, it is to be an uneasy working relationship.