Lie in the Dark

by Dan Fesperman

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 282 pp., $12 (paper)

Early on in Lie in the Dark, war journalist Dan Fesperman writes that his stoic heroine Vlado “couldn’t help but marvel at the enduring popularity of murder.” Unfortunately, the remainder of Fesperman’s novel backslides into an uninvolving mystery that proves murder to be less enduring as a literary pique than Vlado might have realized. Nonetheless, this tale of a slain police chief in war-torn Sarajevo provides enough historical and contemporary insights into the effects of ethnic cleansing that the war and region become the most intriguing characters in the novel. Vivid with period detail, Lie in the Dark paints a disturbing picture of life that really is lived among the ruins. Religious zealotry, famine, corruption — Fesperman covers the spectrum of issues not often highlighted in the media, and all with surprising grace. His hero, Vlado, lives day to day with the threat of sniper gunfire yet communicates the inherent sliver of hope that propels civilians and officials alike into holding on just one more day in a region populated by veritable zombies.

This article appears in August 18 • 2000.

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