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Lieutenant Boruvka #3
The End of Lieutenant Boruvka
In this collection of stories, Lieutenant Boruvka, a Prague cop, confronts Soviet troops and opposition from every corner as he continues to track down murder suspects in most influential positions and jeopardizes his career in doing so
185 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
75 people want to read
About the author
Josef Škvorecký
138 books154 followersJosef Škvorecký, CM was a Czech writer and publisher who spent much of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. By turns humorous, wise, eloquent and humanistic, Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 30, 2018
Boruvka is an aging, overweight depressed Czech policeman who is grappling with the sexual-freedom drug-taking youth. He wants his teenage pregnant daughter to marry. He wants to do his job as a homicide cop well but has to work within a system polluted by socialist politics and secrecy. And his country has just been invaded by Russia.
There is a lot of satire, irony and melancholy in this set of short stories. The actual stories are so-so, as is the writing style. But the interest is in the satire of a broken political system.
There is a lot of satire, irony and melancholy in this set of short stories. The actual stories are so-so, as is the writing style. But the interest is in the satire of a broken political system.
September 30, 2014
This volume contains six ostensibly comic stories that are in fact rather sour. Joseph Skvorecky went through a prolonged phase in which he wrote detective stories in the style of G.K. Chesterton. There were several regrettable aspects of this period in Skvorecky's writing. The first was that despite demonstrating considerable skill with his detective stories fans of crime fiction had no interest in a style that had been out of date for half a century when Skvorecky was writing. The second, was that Skvorecky's fans who loved his satires on contemporary life in a Communist country had no interest in reading detective fiction. I belong to the second category of disappointed reader who wanted Skvorecky's focus to be on the daily life of individuals trapped in a communists regime.
If you belong to the school of thought which holds that mystery stories must tell how order is restored to a perfect world after it has been disrupted by a crime, then the idea of writing crime fiction set in a communist country is nonsensical. A communist country is not a perfect world; it is a prison for its citizens. The basic contradiction can be seen in how the stories in this collection are all resolved. The detective identifies the criminal but no action is taken because the criminal has connections in the communist party.
This pessimistic book was written in reaction to the suppression of the Prague Springtime which forced Skvorecky to flee Czechoslovakia, a country which ceased to exist before he was able to return. Skvorecky's fans will enjoy this book but for those wishing to get acquainted with the work of this great writer there a dozen better books to start with.
If you belong to the school of thought which holds that mystery stories must tell how order is restored to a perfect world after it has been disrupted by a crime, then the idea of writing crime fiction set in a communist country is nonsensical. A communist country is not a perfect world; it is a prison for its citizens. The basic contradiction can be seen in how the stories in this collection are all resolved. The detective identifies the criminal but no action is taken because the criminal has connections in the communist party.
This pessimistic book was written in reaction to the suppression of the Prague Springtime which forced Skvorecky to flee Czechoslovakia, a country which ceased to exist before he was able to return. Skvorecky's fans will enjoy this book but for those wishing to get acquainted with the work of this great writer there a dozen better books to start with.
September 29, 2009
I confess I'm a bit shocked to see Skvorecky so neglected on this site. I would have thought he was a mainstream popular writer...obviously I'm wrong.
He's fabulous.
He's fabulous.
February 12, 2025
I found this another of those books that held many of the elements I love, yet didn't carry me as a reader.
The setting is fascinating, 1960s Prague, a world worn disaffected detective whose family forms as much of the stories' construction as the crimes. The reality is that the whole country is a crime scene and investigations are sidelined when political expedience is enforced. The individual concerns being lesser than the "greater good" no matter that this is a detective being paid to investigate. He should, the authorities maintain spend his time looking at class enemies.
The stories link, forming what I saw as a novel. I wanted to love this so much more than I did
The setting is fascinating, 1960s Prague, a world worn disaffected detective whose family forms as much of the stories' construction as the crimes. The reality is that the whole country is a crime scene and investigations are sidelined when political expedience is enforced. The individual concerns being lesser than the "greater good" no matter that this is a detective being paid to investigate. He should, the authorities maintain spend his time looking at class enemies.
The stories link, forming what I saw as a novel. I wanted to love this so much more than I did
July 22, 2022
A delightfully sideways take on the oppression in Prague, yet frequently, and surprisingly, profoundly sad. The choice of a high-ranking police officer as an emblematic figure of the political milieu is a curious choice that is, in the end, supremely vindicated through a poised elucidation of his uniquely Slavic weltschmerz.
Out of 2000, I give it… 1968!!!
Out of 2000, I give it… 1968!!!
April 27, 2020
Exiled Czech writer/publisher Skvorecky wrote a sequence of four books featuring Prague homicide detective Lieutenant Boruvka, set around the time of the "Prague Spring" of 1968. Each book is a series of shortish (20-30 page) stories about a particular case. However, they proceed in chronological order and build upon each other, so before picking this third volume up, you've ideally read the first two: "The Mournful Demeanor of Lieutenant Boruvka" and "Sins for Father Knox." I didn't know all this and read this on its own, and while it holds up just fine, its also clear that there are references being made to past events and people.
The framework for the Lieutenant Boruvka's investigations is that while they are classic murder mysteries in the sense of staging, clues, suspects, witnesses, etc... and he is able to arrive at the truth -- he is never able to "solve" them, because to do so would be to expose the endemic corruption and hypocrisy of the communist system. It's an interesting blend, because as people in the cases are experimenting with LSD and broader sexual mores, they do so in a police state with nasty anti-Semitic and other undercurrents.
The cases involve a dancer who may or may not have committed suicide, two young women mysterious gunned down in a field, an exhumed skull, the bashed in skull of a candy delivery driver, and dead old eavesdropper. Even as the plots are cleverly revealed and a certain sardonic humor is to be had, there's a sad undertone to it all, as a society struggles under the oppression of its own leaders and the tanks of the USSR. The stories are definitely worth reading by anyone who likes crime fiction and has an interest in the era.
The framework for the Lieutenant Boruvka's investigations is that while they are classic murder mysteries in the sense of staging, clues, suspects, witnesses, etc... and he is able to arrive at the truth -- he is never able to "solve" them, because to do so would be to expose the endemic corruption and hypocrisy of the communist system. It's an interesting blend, because as people in the cases are experimenting with LSD and broader sexual mores, they do so in a police state with nasty anti-Semitic and other undercurrents.
The cases involve a dancer who may or may not have committed suicide, two young women mysterious gunned down in a field, an exhumed skull, the bashed in skull of a candy delivery driver, and dead old eavesdropper. Even as the plots are cleverly revealed and a certain sardonic humor is to be had, there's a sad undertone to it all, as a society struggles under the oppression of its own leaders and the tanks of the USSR. The stories are definitely worth reading by anyone who likes crime fiction and has an interest in the era.
April 7, 2018
This is a short book, made up of five short stories tracking some of Lieutenant Boruvka’s cases over a number of years before, during and after the Prague Spring of 1968. The stories are less about the crimes themselves but more about how life and the working of the criminal police was influenced by the times - told with plenty of poignancy and humour. I read (and loved) most of Skvorecky’s longer novels a long time ago when the fall of the Berlin Wall was still relatively recent, and this was an easy glimpse back into his world that has made me want to go back and read some of them again.
June 24, 2025
Smutek poručíka Borůvky mi oproti Konci téhož sedl víc, pravděpodobně proto, že byl celkově optimistický, tady ta tíživost doby, režim a chování odporných angažovaných straníků, zatajování vražd, když je pachatel někdo režimu "pohodlný" i rybičky v poručíkově svědomí mi nějak neudělaly dobře.
Pořád je to ale skvělý Škvorecký a zajímavé případy!
Pořád je to ale skvělý Škvorecký a zajímavé případy!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2025
One of four books in the author’s Lieutenant Boruvka series. The story is set in Prague around the time of the uprising and Soviet invasion, so say late 1960s.
The Lieutenant (police detective) has his quirks. There’s humor in the fact that he is quite overweight but used to be a physical ed instructor. He plays the saxophone. He’ll decline your offer of a cigarette but pull out a cigar. He has a good relationship with his daughter but we wonder about his wife – for example, when his daughter becomes pregnant she tells him who the father is, but not her mother.
He doesn’t feel he’s a good cop. He has had to back off cases because of involvement from Communist party officials. On another case years ago, a young woman missing, he learns when her body turns up that he closed the case too early. When a young woman was missing in those days it was so easy to write ‘case closed’ meaning she probably fled the country (illegally).
His latest case involves another young woman. It could be murder or suicide or maybe just an accident. There are indications in her apartment of leaking gas and drugs. He reads her cache of love letters looking for clues.
The byzantine bureaucratic rules and politics constantly interfere in his investigations. He sees that bureaucratic maze personally because his daughter now wants to marry an American man and leave the country. So much complexity to get that request approved by the authorities!
I give the author credit for a fairly original plot. He shows us how an archaeological dig that unearthed a skull from the Middle Ages leads to a clue that solves his present case.
A pretty good read. I’ve read two other books by this author (links below to my reviews):
Two Murders in My Double Life
The Miracle Game
Wikipedia tells us that the author (1924-2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during the communist era. Škvorecký and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. He published about a dozen novels, half translated into English (he wrote in Czech), and is probably best-know for his novel The Cowards.
Top photo of Prague from fineartamerica.com
1968 Soviet invasion from theatlantic.com
Statue of the author in the Czech town of Nachod from Wikipedia.commons
The Lieutenant (police detective) has his quirks. There’s humor in the fact that he is quite overweight but used to be a physical ed instructor. He plays the saxophone. He’ll decline your offer of a cigarette but pull out a cigar. He has a good relationship with his daughter but we wonder about his wife – for example, when his daughter becomes pregnant she tells him who the father is, but not her mother.
He doesn’t feel he’s a good cop. He has had to back off cases because of involvement from Communist party officials. On another case years ago, a young woman missing, he learns when her body turns up that he closed the case too early. When a young woman was missing in those days it was so easy to write ‘case closed’ meaning she probably fled the country (illegally).
His latest case involves another young woman. It could be murder or suicide or maybe just an accident. There are indications in her apartment of leaking gas and drugs. He reads her cache of love letters looking for clues.
The byzantine bureaucratic rules and politics constantly interfere in his investigations. He sees that bureaucratic maze personally because his daughter now wants to marry an American man and leave the country. So much complexity to get that request approved by the authorities!
I give the author credit for a fairly original plot. He shows us how an archaeological dig that unearthed a skull from the Middle Ages leads to a clue that solves his present case.
A pretty good read. I’ve read two other books by this author (links below to my reviews):
Two Murders in My Double Life
The Miracle Game
Wikipedia tells us that the author (1924-2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during the communist era. Škvorecký and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. He published about a dozen novels, half translated into English (he wrote in Czech), and is probably best-know for his novel The Cowards.
Top photo of Prague from fineartamerica.com
1968 Soviet invasion from theatlantic.com
Statue of the author in the Czech town of Nachod from Wikipedia.commons
January 26, 2016
Skvorecky's Boruvka detective series gets some much needed gravitas as these stories, set in the run-up to and aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, are actually about something - the price a decent person pays to maintain that decency in the face of official and societal corruption. As with many of Skvorecky's mysteries, there are factual errors or improbabilities that grate - it is almost impossible for someone to die from an LSD overdose, as happens here - but the details here in how ordinary people cope with or get ground down by Communism make up for these lapses. The Boruvka series is among the lesser part of Skvorecky's writing (but not as bad as his Poe pastiche, or Two Murders in My Double Life) but this book is worth reading.
October 8, 2014
This book of short stories of Lieutenant Borůvka are a pleasure to me, many of these stories show not only to people abroad how things were during former regime in Czechoslovakia and it's so well put. It is written from point of view of ordinary detective.
Sherlock was genius, Poirot was rather full of himself and famous detective but Boruvka is man you would not heard of, he is thinking as a man of honor and the way he sees world is neither black or white but it's kind of the way we would perhaps see it.
This stories are very close to me if I realize story of my own family and I am enjoying this deductions very much
Sherlock was genius, Poirot was rather full of himself and famous detective but Boruvka is man you would not heard of, he is thinking as a man of honor and the way he sees world is neither black or white but it's kind of the way we would perhaps see it.
This stories are very close to me if I realize story of my own family and I am enjoying this deductions very much
December 3, 2011
Detective fiction set in Prague in 1968 (year of the Soviet invasion, or "fraternal assistance," to put down the "Prague Spring" insurgence) by Czech emigre Skvorecky. Boruvka is an overly empathetic, mournful, police inspector continually thwarted by the communist regime. The Lieutenant Boruvka books (4, of which this is the third) are short story collections, but this one is interconnected enough to just about read as a novel.
May 14, 2009
Join the melancholy Lieutenant Boruvka once again for this third installment in the series by Josef Skvorevcky. . .
Want to read
January 27, 2019Synopsis: includes six short stories covering Boruvka's cases in Prague during the spring uprisings of 1968.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews