It’s 20th-century Czechoslovakia… and murder comes knocking.
The Teralov family are loved and respected by everyone in Prague, adored for bringing prosperity and hope to its downtrodden people… so nobody expected to find Peter Teralov inexplicably murdered in the streets.
To quell the uproar, expert Soviet detective Edgar Rollenvart soon finds himself tasked with hunting down the one … finds himself tasked with hunting down the one responsible and bringing the killer to justice. He’s confident he can unravel the mystery behind Peter’s killing – despite the mysterious absence of evidence.
Teaming up with Peter’s brother, Edgar embarks on a twisting and impossible case that will take them through the streets and cities of early 1920s Czechoslovakia. As the number of suspects mounts and the evidence seems to go nowhere, Edgar soon realizes that the mystery behind this case runs far deeper than meets the eye…
If you like gripping historical mysteries packed with brutal twists and turns, then you won’t want to miss this dramatic and period-perfect depiction of the early 20th-century in the heart of Europe. Grab your copy now!
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Loved this book,highly recommend,so many unexpected twists,will red again
3.5 Stars
I received this book for an honest review. All expressed opinions, cynical or otherwise, are my own.
Atmospheric novels are my bag. Whether it is horror, science fiction, or regular old literary. The Affliction of Praha, a historical mystery by Simon Gillard, has that in spades. But it is not perfect. There are tense issues, POV issues, and a smattering of other problems that are – naturally – exactly what I expect in a debut novel. Still, I am not one to complain too loudly over something I enjoyed.
Set in the 1920’s of Czechoslovakia, Affliction pulls us into an early Soviet scape. Peter, the eldest of the aristocratic Teralov family has been murdered, and detective Edgar Rollenvart is on the case. Together with Peter’s brother Juraj he mucks around to try to bring the killer to justice.
I mentioned this book is atmospheric. Gillard achieves that by a one-two punch of solid descriptions, and effective dialogue. The prose, while not perfect, has a few stand out and artistic lines. The interactions between Edgar and Juraj are also quite good; there is a natural sort of chemistry going on there that is unforced. Edgar is believable as sort of an old-salt detective. And Juraj’s motivations as a grieving brother were satisfactorily established. Beyond the setting, the plot is even paced, and there were enough twists to keep me going.
But – and you could smell the ‘but’ coming in that last sentence – there are a few problems. The first, and it ties into the atmosphere, is the point of view swapping. There were several times when the POV either switched midchapter (and sometimes back and again) without any setup, or the viewpoint was never clearly established. Also, while each character is a unique little snowflake, they are about as deep as the puddle left over from its melting. There is nothing inherently wrong about that, but somehow given the prose and in the fact this is a historical novel, I felt there would be more delving into the culture and backgrounds.
About those descriptions, what we have is fine, and as aforementioned, atmospheric. However, their quality ranges, and can border on overuse. Gillard uses a ton of action dialogue, or descriptions bordering the dialogue tags. Evenly applied this adds flare and helps to establish that all sought after “author voice.” However, this novel tends to stray. Better editing would have alleviated this. One last thought on this subject, and it is a bit of a cliché, but the adage rings true: show, don’t tell. Not a constant problem here, but there were enough happenings that I felt it should be noted.
As the sum of its parts, Affliction at Praha is a nice read. Just don’t look too deeply past the surface.
I gave up partway through because the historical background was so glaringly wrong I couldn’t stand it. Czechoslovakia was independent at this time and the Soviet control almost non-existent because Lenin was still trying to solidify his hold of the individual soviets within the U.S.S.R. The characters seemed unlikable and the problems with the book made me not care what happened.
Its a very nice book easy to read I enjoy this book
THE AFFLICTION OF PRAHA by Simon Gillard is the first book that I have read by this author. The story is set in 1920s Czechoslovakia. When Peter, the eldest son of the respected Teralov family is found murdered, Soviet detective Edgar Rollenvart is sent to find the killer. He teams up with Peter’s brother Juraj to bring the killer to justice.
Edgar and Juraj made for an interesting team. Edgar was especially good at learning things based on people’s facial expressions and Juraj knew to location and people. The suspects are many, but who is the real killer and why was Peter killed?
It was easy to root for the protagonists, but there was not the level of depth that I expected. However, the motivations were believable and well-drawn with appropriate emotion. This is a steadily-paced book that kept me interested and at about 60% of the way through the book, there was a twist that I did not see coming. However, I guessed the culprit early in the book. I have two main quibbles with the book. First, I expect to learn something of the culture and times when I read a historical mystery and I did not get that. Second, I did not like the ending.
Overall, this was an enjoyable mystery that has a few surprises in it and flows well.
I won a digital copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks go to Goodreads and Simon Gillard for the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.