Rating: 4/5
Review: An enjoyable, thoughtful book
I thought this was an enjoyable, thoughtful book with some genuinely fascinating moral content. In the Gilbertine monk Father Anselm, William Broderick has created far more than just another detective-with-a-twist. Anselm is thoughtful, compassionate man who, in his fallible way, seeks after not just the truth of wrongdoing and consequent justice but looks for understanding and moral enlightenment and tackles some very important human issues.
The story here centres around events Poland in the early 1950s and in 1982 under the communist repression and a present-day investigation into torture and execution, informers and resistance during those periods. It is a complex, nuanced story with a mass of hidden motives and secrets. At its heart is a perceptive examination of guilt and the choices people make in difficult, sometimes impossible, circumstances. As a study of motivations and compassion I thought it exceptionally good.
The prose is intelligent and very readable and the story well-structured and compelling. I found most of the book excellent, but there were eventually just too many hidden twists to keep me completely involved and believing, and I found the eventual verbal showdown between the "villain" and Anselm rather staged and implausible. This meant that the last 100 pages or so didn't keep me quite as engrossed as the beginning of the book.
Despite this reservation, I found this a very good book and recommend it warmly to anyone who likes a thoughtful, well written novel.
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