16 ratings | 15 reviews | avg rating:4.12

Luke McCallin’s Followers (228)

Luke’s Bookshelves

to-read (1)
currently-reading (1)
read (16)

Luke’s Friends (7)

Stephanie

106 books | 61 friends

Marika Charalambous

1,758 books | 182 friends

Jordan

612 books | 3,147 friends

Timea

635 books | 62 friends

Chelsea Starling

192 books | 353 friends

Ruthie Toombs

5 books | 146 friends

William Wood

48 books | 9 friends

Luke McCallin

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United Kingdom

Website

http://lukemccallin.com/

Twitter

mccallinluke

Genre

Mystery

Member Since

June 2014

edit data

Luke McCallin was born in Oxford, grew up around the world and has worked with the United Nations as a humanitarian relief worker and peacekeeper in the Caucasus, the Sahel, and the Balkans. His experiences have driven his writing, in which he explores what happens to normal people--those stricken by conflict, by disaster--when they are put under abnormal pressures.

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Luke McCallin questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Luke McCallin It’s when your characters begin to take shape and, eventually, become creations. You start with one or two things—maybe a name, a description, an emot…moreIt’s when your characters begin to take shape and, eventually, become creations. You start with one or two things—maybe a name, a description, an emotion, an impression, a place, a time—and then bit by bit they come to life. My own character, Captain Gregor Reinhardt, literally walked into my dreams one night, and he sat there, patiently, for a long while thereafter. I knew a couple of things about him. He was a lonely man. He was a good detective. He was a German. But why was he lonely? How did he become a good detective? Why did I imagine him German? You start to answer these questions, and each answer leads to more questions and more answers, until you have a ‘character’.

The freedom to invent, to explore, to imagine. Inviting others into your world, the pleasure you take in their joy of it. All these things, and more, are true.(less)

flag

4 likes · like
Comment

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Luke McCallin I spent six years working in Bosnia, and you can’t live there, or in Sarajevo, for long without it seeping into you. As much as it’s an overused analo…moreI spent six years working in Bosnia, and you can’t live there, or in Sarajevo, for long without it seeping into you. As much as it’s an overused analogy, Bosnia really is a historical and cultural crossroads, and it’s so contested. It defies any simple explanation, just like the finest puzzle or book or question. No matter the need to reduce and simplify it, there’s no one way to read it or play it, and a place and time like that gives you so many options as an author, for drama, action, reflection, for asking big questions and trying out the answers to them.

I was a political advisor to the United Nations mission, mandated to reform the country’s police forces and judiciary. I spent a lot of time with people from all walks of Bosnian life. Not just policemen and judges and lawyers, but mayors and town councilors, with priests and imams, with refugees and people still living in ruins, with war criminals and those who survived them, with those who lived the war and those who fled from it, with women holding families together, and men who had fallen adrift of life. I began to build up a collage in my mind. I kept wondering, asking myself, what would I have done in their place, and I began weaving that human and historical tapestry, which is one of the most complex and fascinating you can imagine, into my books, and into another time, that of the Second World War.

Out of all that, came the idea for The Pale House of how, too often, the guilty escape justice…(less)

flag

4 likes · like
Comment

See all 6 answers from Luke McCallin…

Combine Editions
Luke McCallin’s books

Average rating: 4.11 · 8,369 ratings · 647 reviews · 16 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Man From Berlin (Gregor Reinhardt, #1) 3.98 avg rating — 3,721 ratings — published 2013 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pale House (Gregor Reinhardt, #2) 4.13 avg rating — 2,064 ratings — published 2014 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ashes of Berlin (Gregor Reinhardt #3) 4.27 avg rating — 1,917 ratings — published 2016 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From a Dark Horizon (Gregor Reinhardt, #4) 4.26 avg rating — 637 ratings — published 2021 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Divided City: Gregor Reinhardt Series, Book 3 4.71 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pale House 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conspiration 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Les cendres de Berlin really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Where God Does Not Walk: Gregor Reinhardt, Book 4 by Luke McCallin (Goodreads Author), Toby Longworth (Narrator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Conspiration 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Luke McCallin…

Series by Luke McCallin

Gregor Reinhardt (4 books)
by

Luke McCallin (Goodreads Author)

4.11 avg rating — 8,339 ratings

Luke is Currently Reading

Luke McCallin is currently reading

The Kindly Ones

by Jonathan Littell

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jun 16, 2014 01:24AM

rss
Luke’s Recent Updates

Luke McCallin is now friends with Stephanie
Jan 05, 2024 10:20AM · like

More of Luke's books…

Quotes by Luke McCallin (?)

“You talk to me of choices?’ said Reinhardt. ‘I only know that the choices life makes you take strip away the person we wanted to be. Builds us up into something we never wanted. Until you look back on life, and you see that the track of your life is a scar that hides what might have been.”
― Luke McCallin, The Man from Berlin

3 likes

“The two of them headed over the narrow road and away from Vukic’s house. The houses up here were beautiful,”
― Luke McCallin, The Man From Berlin

0 likes

“any case, happiness did not mean conversation. Neither he nor Claussen had exchanged more than a couple of words since they left, but there was a comfort in that silence that he was loath to break for the sake of mere speech.”
― Luke McCallin, The Man From Berlin

0 likes

See all Luke McCallin's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: Olivermagnus 2017 Challenges	6	22	Dec 22, 2016 05:35PM
Crazy Challenge C...: The Question Is... 2016	77	98	Sep 12, 2017 07:49PM
The Mystery, Crim...: Currently Reading? Just Finished? 2017	1775	1194	Jan 01, 2018 03:37AM
WACKY READING CHA...: Authors, A - Z (2017)	60	70	Jan 21, 2018 08:31AM
Historical Fictio...: Novels about downed WWII pilots in enemy theritory trying to escape	25	115	Feb 10, 2018 11:07AM
Crazy Challenge C...: 2016 Help Me Decide	2178	289	Apr 09, 2019 08:36PM
Historical Myster...: * Around the Globe Book Suggestions	75	122	May 08, 2019 08:57AM
WACKY READING CHA...: 17X17 Challenge	333	265	Jul 10, 2019 08:02AM