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Kill the General
Stelian Munteanu, lover, killer and Bucharest boy, is a hero who tells us more than we ever imagined about our times. Stelian, a book editor with a sideline in international police work, has to kill a man, a general whose book he’s just published. Will he pull the trigger?
- GenresRomania
294 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
1 person is currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Bogdan Hrib
46 books87 followersAfter graduating civil engineering in Bucharest, Bogdan Hrib embarked on a varied career encompassing the professions of photographer, journalist (from 1991), advertising agency director (1992) and book editor (from 1993).
Bogdan Hrib’s debut as a crime fiction writer came in 2007 with Filiera grecească (The Greek Connection), the first book in the Stelian Munteanu series. It was followed by Blestemul manuscrisului (The Curse of the Manuscript, 2008), Somalia, Mon Amour (2009), Ucideți generalul (March 2011), translated and published by Profusion Publishers as Kill the General (November 2011). The novel Ultima fotografie (The Last Photograph, 2012) is not crime fiction.
The most recent novel signed by Bogdan Hrib is (Patimile doamnei ministru (Passions of Madam Minister, 2016), the fifth book of Stelian Munteanu series.
A keen photographer, Bogdan is a member of the Romanian Photographers’ Association and he has PhD on the press photography in Romania.
From 2008, Bogdan has been the editorial director of Crime Scene Publishing in Bucharest. He was also the vice-president of the Romanian Crime Writers Club (from 2010), and served as editorial counsellor of Flacăra Magazine (2010-12).
Bogdan Hrib’s debut as a crime fiction writer came in 2007 with Filiera grecească (The Greek Connection), the first book in the Stelian Munteanu series. It was followed by Blestemul manuscrisului (The Curse of the Manuscript, 2008), Somalia, Mon Amour (2009), Ucideți generalul (March 2011), translated and published by Profusion Publishers as Kill the General (November 2011). The novel Ultima fotografie (The Last Photograph, 2012) is not crime fiction.
The most recent novel signed by Bogdan Hrib is (Patimile doamnei ministru (Passions of Madam Minister, 2016), the fifth book of Stelian Munteanu series.
A keen photographer, Bogdan is a member of the Romanian Photographers’ Association and he has PhD on the press photography in Romania.
From 2008, Bogdan has been the editorial director of Crime Scene Publishing in Bucharest. He was also the vice-president of the Romanian Crime Writers Club (from 2010), and served as editorial counsellor of Flacăra Magazine (2010-12).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 7, 2022
Volumul 4, ucideți generalul, din seria Stelian Munteanu a fost tare bun, e preferatul meu de până acum.
Povestea este redată pe mai multe planuri narative și mi-a plăcut că unul a fost axat pe anii din tinerețe ai personajului principal. Foarte fain scris, l-am cunoscut și mai bine pe Stelian cu ocazia asta. Apoi au fost și întâmplările din '89, totul se întâmpla pe un fundal alert.
Cât despre misterul în sine, din prezent, este vorba de o crimă ce are loc chiar dacă lunetistul se răzgândește în ultimul moment și nu apasă trăgaciul. A fost o ancheta cu adevărat intrigantă.
Povestea este redată pe mai multe planuri narative și mi-a plăcut că unul a fost axat pe anii din tinerețe ai personajului principal. Foarte fain scris, l-am cunoscut și mai bine pe Stelian cu ocazia asta. Apoi au fost și întâmplările din '89, totul se întâmpla pe un fundal alert.
Cât despre misterul în sine, din prezent, este vorba de o crimă ce are loc chiar dacă lunetistul se răzgândește în ultimul moment și nu apasă trăgaciul. A fost o ancheta cu adevărat intrigantă.
July 7, 2011
Kill the General is a well crafted book, endowed by its author with separate levels of narration which converge into an exciting story.
The plot could be resumed in the phrase "Stelian Munteanu, a book editor, is forced to accept a contract on the head of a general whose memoirs of the Romanian revolution might have explosive political results".
Going on with the book, we find out how Stelian got himself in a position to be proposed a contract killing, and what is his relation to the general. Thus, we learn that he first met the general back in the Ceausescu's time, when Stelian was an army conscript, and the general only a captain in a military unit in the middle of nowhere. We are also introduced to a shady character called Misha Pushkin, a former KGB man who apparently never quit the job, and who is both a well-meaning friend and a Mephistophelean influence on Stelian.
The book is told in the first person by Stelian, and it begins with a restless early morning in a Vienna hotel. Stelian has a story to tell - the story of General Simionescu, the man he was contracted to kill. But to understand this story, we have to understand who Stelian is, and how he got to be who he is now.
And here Bogdan Hrib does an amazing turn presenting the world of 1980s Romania. The author's descriptions of army life during one of the worst periods in recent Romanian history are vivid, realist - from the mind-numbing drills and marches, to freezing in the barracks due to lack of fuel:
"The first thing I looked at in the morning was the half-filled glass of water on the metal bedside-table. By the thickness of the ice in the glass I tried to estimate the temperature of the room. Several millimetres of ice, several degrees below zero. Outside it was -25. I kept wishing that the glass would break one day. The laws of physics which I still had in my head told me that water increases in volume as it freezes. Therefore, my glass should have cracked. But it never happened."
The action proceeds with episodes from the present interspersed with episodes from Stelian's past, and it all grows into a rounded story that gives the background of the story, presenting in the same time a good view of recent Romanian history and mores.
As the background image gets clearer, the story gathers momentum. We know Stelian has to kill the general, the same man who took him under his wing back in his conscript days, but we do not know why. And, most of all, we do not know if Stelian will be able to pull the trigger.
And I am not going to tell you what he will do - you will have to read the book for yourselves. It is well worth it, trust me. Kill the General is a very good book, written with great attention to details; a thriller/mystery and character study in equal parts, a smart, contemporary Noir that does not only thrill, but actually has something intelligent to say about people, places, and ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.
The plot could be resumed in the phrase "Stelian Munteanu, a book editor, is forced to accept a contract on the head of a general whose memoirs of the Romanian revolution might have explosive political results".
Going on with the book, we find out how Stelian got himself in a position to be proposed a contract killing, and what is his relation to the general. Thus, we learn that he first met the general back in the Ceausescu's time, when Stelian was an army conscript, and the general only a captain in a military unit in the middle of nowhere. We are also introduced to a shady character called Misha Pushkin, a former KGB man who apparently never quit the job, and who is both a well-meaning friend and a Mephistophelean influence on Stelian.
The book is told in the first person by Stelian, and it begins with a restless early morning in a Vienna hotel. Stelian has a story to tell - the story of General Simionescu, the man he was contracted to kill. But to understand this story, we have to understand who Stelian is, and how he got to be who he is now.
And here Bogdan Hrib does an amazing turn presenting the world of 1980s Romania. The author's descriptions of army life during one of the worst periods in recent Romanian history are vivid, realist - from the mind-numbing drills and marches, to freezing in the barracks due to lack of fuel:
"The first thing I looked at in the morning was the half-filled glass of water on the metal bedside-table. By the thickness of the ice in the glass I tried to estimate the temperature of the room. Several millimetres of ice, several degrees below zero. Outside it was -25. I kept wishing that the glass would break one day. The laws of physics which I still had in my head told me that water increases in volume as it freezes. Therefore, my glass should have cracked. But it never happened."
The action proceeds with episodes from the present interspersed with episodes from Stelian's past, and it all grows into a rounded story that gives the background of the story, presenting in the same time a good view of recent Romanian history and mores.
As the background image gets clearer, the story gathers momentum. We know Stelian has to kill the general, the same man who took him under his wing back in his conscript days, but we do not know why. And, most of all, we do not know if Stelian will be able to pull the trigger.
And I am not going to tell you what he will do - you will have to read the book for yourselves. It is well worth it, trust me. Kill the General is a very good book, written with great attention to details; a thriller/mystery and character study in equal parts, a smart, contemporary Noir that does not only thrill, but actually has something intelligent to say about people, places, and ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.
June 9, 2012
Intriguing and enjoyable stuff. Plenty of twists and turns, plus a few fine surprises.
My only real gripe is that there are some references to characters and events in previous books that aren't available in English yet, and you get the feeling at times of dropping into the middle of a series.
My only real gripe is that there are some references to characters and events in previous books that aren't available in English yet, and you get the feeling at times of dropping into the middle of a series.
May 15, 2015
"Am alergat" cu privirea peste fiecare pagină! Plăcerea cu care am citit această carte este de 5 stele, nu numai că eram acolo... trăiam efectiv fiecare moment, fără răsuflare ... nu vreau să spun prea multe, aș strica farmecul, READ IT!
October 27, 2012
Exciting to read a Romanian thriller in translation, but this one felt like it was trying to cram too much in: a thriller, a personal history, and the history of a country in transition.
October 8, 2017
Ucideți generalul este o carte a generației noastre, generația celor care am prins ambele epoci: comunisul și postdecembrismul. Bogdan Hrib creionează sugestiv momente ale comunismului, prin amintiri din stagiul militar dominat de legile absurdului sau de întortocheatele cărări ale istoriilor cu spioni comuniști care au uitat să facă tranziția către democrație. Avem parte și de câteva instantanee de tranziție, cu o piață de carte explozivă și halucinantă, cu o presă obsedată de senzațional, cu rămășițe ale comunismului strecurate în structurile unei democrații proaspete și nesigure.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews