Saturday 9 February 2013

Review of Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska

Where the Devil can`t go – send a woman! That is exactly what ambitious young female detective, Natalie Kershaw does in order to solve the mystery of the death of a Polish girl found floating in the Thames with not a shred of clothing or identity on her, only a tattoo of two names Ela and Pawel entwined in a heart near the base of her spine. Is this murder? For the Polish community in the East End of London, the suicide rate of young girls throwing themselves into the Thames is very high. Another girl is discovered dead in a hotel room after an apparent drugs overdose. Are these cases linked?

Meanwhile, the resident Polish private detective and hard man of the community Janusz Kiska has been asked by his priest, Father Pietruski, to find the whereabouts of a young waitress who has disappeared. The course of his investigations leads him to cross the path of Natalie Kershaw, who at first treats him as a murder suspect and possibly involved in a drugs ring. He, however, has stumbled across the secret of the drug dealers, and has to flee for his life. As part of his search, Janusz has to go back to Poland to dig up the past concerning the dark days of Communism – on this trip he is accompanied by his best friend Oskar , a building site worker, who has been asked to repatriate a co-worker killed at the site. During his few days in Poland Janusz, uncovers a dark and terrible secret kept by an ex-member of the SB, the Communist secret police, which has ramifications reaching across time and borders to solve at least one of Natalie Kershaw`s murder cases but not before other deaths have occurred.

I found this an absorbing read from cover to cover. Anya Lipska is a great writer, combining touches of humour with great suspense. You feel part of the Polish community and the story opens your eyes to what these characters think and how hard they work. A highly recommended read. I eagerly look forward to reading more from this author!

Reviewed by Liz.

Thanks Liz and thank you to The Friday Project for sending us a copy to review.

Where the Devil Can't Go is available to buy now.

No comments:

Post a Comment