Try the Morgue

by Eva Maria Staal

Ten years ago, "Eva Maria Staal" kept a gun in her purse. It was a present from her boss, Jimmy Liu, the international arms dealer extraordinaire with a taste for high-class male escorts. Together, Jimmy and his devoted assistant traveled the world's most dangerous hotspots, closing deals with ruthless warlords and corrupt generals, and trading Stinger missiles in Karachi, AK-47s in Chechnya, and hollow-point bullets in Islamabad. But burdened by her conscience, Eva Maria finally got out, married an optometrist, and had a baby. Now, assailed with memories of her secret life, she must reconcile her suburban present with a repressed but ineradicable past, one that blasts a hole so deep she doesn't know how to love her own daughter. Writing with a knowing intelligence only an insider could provide, this pseudonymous author has created a debut with remarkable intensity that examines the razor-thin line separating those who are drowned from those who are saved.

Genres: Fiction, Dutch Literature, Thriller, Crime

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 12, 2007

Reviews

[Victoria Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a novel worth reading. Especially if you like anything to do with guns. But it is about so much more than guns and gun running or trading. It is about a woman who goes from having no street smarts to a woman who can notice the slightest change in a person's attitude. It is about a woman who cares about her boss so much so that she risks her job, her bosses business, and their life in some deals.



I feel that this "memoir" of a sort is a very good start for Staal, and that she should continue on with this style of writing and maybe tell more of her stories other than the main points that led to the demise of the business and boss that she worked for.



The only thing that I would suggest with this novel is that it is a bit choppy and doesn't have good flow to it. I would have liked to have not jumped around so much with this story especially when it would bounce around between the flashbaacks and when she was talking about her daughter. Maybe this is something that could have been its own book or just left out entirely, especially since we don't even know why she is moving really.

[Leslie Bitner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-told memoir about dubious people who are never dull. Travelogue of a few of the worst places on earth.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Try the Morgue gives you a glimpse into the world of international arms dealing. Eva Maria Staal is a real-life gunrunner and her story is very interesting and terrifying at the same time. Eventually her conscience gets the better of her and she gets out of the business, marries and has a child. But memories of the past prevent her from loving her daughter in the way she knows she should. Unbelievable story! The author holds nothing back in her writing about this ruthless business. My only problem with this debut was that the author kept going back and forth in time and often I found it difficult to keep the story straight in my mind.

[Mathilde · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, I want to mention that I got the book via Goodreads Giveaway which was very nice.

However, in my opinion, half of the book was decent while the other half was terrible.
It took me forever to finish it as I kept getting bored half way through each chapter.

I didn't like any of the characters, I really think that there wasn't enough details about them. I couldn't really get to know them and care for them. They could have all died in the end, no big deal.

Also, I felt like the book did too much jumping around, I kept getting lost and constantly had to go back to understand what was going on. Frustrating ...

I am glad to have read it but I won't touch it ever again.

[Andrea Schwalm Stolz · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are books about the power of motherhood...and then there are (seemingly autobiographical) books about working for an international arms dealer, getting swept up and away by that experience, and then giving it up to be a mother. Most unconventional love story I've ever read.

[Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting literary device: the author shares her name with her fictional narrator. More interesting: the story is a memoir of an international arms dealer. How much was true, real, or autobiographical?

[Amanda Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terribly written but good story. I kept reading because the author lived the life of this "fictional" book.

[Żaneta Sosin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Powiada się, że nie należy oceniać książki po okładce. Niestety ja oceniłam ją w ten sposób, dając jej przy tym szansę. Z początku myślałam, że będzie to kryminał, bądź coś związanego z medycyną sądową, na co wskazywała okładka (moim błędem było to, iż nie przeczytałam dokładnie opisu, a jedynie sam początek). Pozycja okazała się być absolutnie nie dla mnie. Nie podobał mi się język, przeskoki w akcji, w których niesamowicie łatwo było się zgubić, a fabułę samą w sobie uznaję za potwornie nudną. Żałuję zakupu, do tej pory chyba jedna z najgorszych książek jakie udało mi się przeczytać. Doceniam jedynie kilka ciekawostek na temat broni wszelakiego rodzaju, to chyba jedyny pozytywny aspekt tej pozycji.

[Claudia Sluis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik werd weggeblazen door dit boek. Het leest vlot en meeslepend en ik blijf er achteraf aan denken omdat het me zo bij de strot greep én nog. Wat een talent, deze Eva Maria Staal en wat heeft ze nog weinig geschreven. (Misschien kampt ze met hetzelfde probleem als ik, dat je als schrijver soms heeeeeeeel moeilijk afstand van je verhaal kan nemen, steeds beter wilt en dat het uitbrengen eindeloos uitstelt.)
Het eind vond ik lastig, onbevredigend, maar qua techniek goed gedaan. Momenteel een van mijn lievelingsboeken wat ik vaak even ter hand neem om nog een paar zinnetjes te lezen. De Vondeling staat nog op mijn verlanglijst.

[Wilte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoofdstukken wisselen steeds af tussen Eva Maria Staal, twintiger die samen met Jimmy in wapens handelt, grote transporten over de hele wereld, en Eva Maria Staal, dertiger met een kind en man (huisje-boompje-beestje).

Op zich goed geschreven, met vaart, maar toch grijpen het verhaal en de beslommeringen me niet, noch de hard-boiled wereldse wapenhandel, noch de huiselijke moeder-op-schoolplein verwikkelingen.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing read

This is a very detailed story of something very disturbing, told in a way that makes it real and understandable. A bit jumpy and sometimes hard to follow but a very good read.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently, written by a female gun runner and possibly a true story?

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished in a weekend. Definitely grabbed my attention and was an exciting read.

[Diana Willemsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voorspelbaar, maar aardig boek voor tussendoor.

[Hendrik Dejonckheere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek leest als een trein. Het recruitmentproces verloopt weinig realistisch. Maar afgezien daarvan zijn de beschrijvingen van de markten waarop zaken gedaan worden zeer realistisch. Het onderhandelingsronde tussen de concurrenten in de wapenhandel deed me denken over hoe het vroeger in de bouw ging bij overheidsinvesteringen. De wisseling tussen het moederperspectief en de keiharde zakenbitch in de wapenhandel vond ik te gezocht omdat de wisselingen te weinig steun bieden aan het verloop van het verhaal afgezien van de dood van de kamelenjongen. Ik ben wel zo enthousiast dat ik de vondeling (haar volgende boek) zeker ga lezen.

[Charline Bonhomme-Lacourt · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai aimé, livre assez prenant qu’on veut finir vite

[C.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

**I received this book free of charge courtesy of GoodReads First Reads Giveaways**

*Review contains some spoilers*

This book has really blown me away. It's one of those that brings to light the terrible things going on in our world that we try so hard to forget in order to have happiness within our daily lives. I am still slightly confused if this woman really did do the things she says in the book or if it's completely fiction. It's so ugly yet surreal, the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurry. It really is an in-depth descent into arms dealing.


The writing and pace of the novel is phenomenal. It runs fast with no true breaks in between just like Staal. She is here in the present moving on with her life while reminiscing about her past which takes up 90% of the book. Not a lot of background information is given about any character involved. None of the main characters or side characters. We have no real idea what led them down the paths they were on or why they really choose the careers they did. We do see glimpses into their personal lives and families previous to the novels events but not enough to paint a very clear picture.

While the story and writing grabbed me I struggled personally with the main characters and events evolving. Should this be an actual account of someone I do not know how they sleep at night. I do not understand how they can possibly justify the things they have done. This person did not NEED to do this. She wanted the monetary benefits solely. She had a life outside of arms trading and was under no duress to start/continue. Her actions and the actions of her co-workers have cost millions their lives. She only stopped after selling children for camel jockeying & prostitution when the thought came that perhaps she had gone too far. She claims she did not know until after the transaction that's what the innocent child(ren) were being sold for. Are you kidding me?! This author expects me to believe that an arms dealer who frequents that part of the world often (Dubai, Pakistan, etc) did not have a clue that these children were not being adopted by wealthy parents?! Even I know about camel children, childhood prostitution, and the dancing boys of Afghanistan despite living on the other half of the globe. My heart breaks for them. Anytime anyone tries to help and rebuild these peoples lives warlords come along and create destruction with countless lives lost. Warlords who this woman helped supply. Along with bio-chemical warfare.

Some may call this woman brave. Perhaps that is true in a sense. Perhaps this novel (if true) was a way alleviating her guilt. Perhaps she helped international authorities by providing insider info to help save future lives. I suppose the full truth may never be known. All I know is that I, personally, could not have done the things this woman did. No matter the reason. One life is a life too many and so long as people like her roam the earth there will never be true peace. In my opinion it's people like her that are the cockroaches of the world. They see dollar signs where blood flows and care nothing for the true cost.

This is not a book for very young readers. Despite being short in length it is extremely mature content. Despite my personal reservations for her greed even I have to admit this was a great read and I honestly recommend it.

[Brian MacLearn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Try the Morgue by Eva Maria Staal

Many reviews go beyond critiquing the entertainment value of the actual story. I read for enjoyment. I have always finished every book that I started. I am amazed by how many times I have changed my opinion when the last page is finally read. I want to be caught up in the story, the characters, and the emotion. With that being said, Try the Morgue entertained me. I was engaged in the story, and I wanted to read it to find out what happened to Maria and Jimmy.
The story is about Maria Staal, an international arms dealer working for Jimmy Liu. She is the voice of the story, and recounts her life, both fifteen years in the past and in the present. In the past, she is a twenty-five year old female arms broker, the meat of the story. In the present, she is the mother of a young daughter and married. The novel cascades back and forth between the two stories. I kept expecting the book to bring these two story lines together, it eventually did.
Maria's tale of her escapades is what makes the book interesting. I wanted to know more about what she did, and how she survived, to become the normal mother with a daughter. There were times when the story jumped from the past to the future without a clear transition. There were a few other parts where I found myself unsure of the intended meaning. These moments interrupted the flow of the story. When Maria was telling the stories of her work, I pictured her sitting in an interrogation room answering questions, retelling past events. She never seemed to be overly emotional, who would be after all that she had endured. I was also never sure what Maria looked like, very little description of her. I felt for the struggles Maria went through, but never became emotionally attached to her. This may have been the intended purpose of the author. Generally, it was easy for me to picture the story as I read along. At the end of the day, I was glad that I read it.

[Isa K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is silly... I finished this book a couple days ago and I keep forgetting to review it.

Maybe that's because my feelings are so mixed. I liked this book a lot. It's rich with detail about the world of arms dealing. But there were certain stylistic decisions that really let the whole book down. So much so that I found myself hoping this book was originally published in another language, because that would at least account for some of the deflating.

The plot of the book jumps back and forth between two different timelines: Staal's work with Jimmy and Staal's apparently normal, happy, post-gun-dealing family life. This is more confusing than it might normally be, partly because switching between is never really transitioned. Staal breaks up with her boyfriend, pages later she's married to him (what?), Staal is locked up in a shady 3rd world jail ... suddenly she baking brownies with her daughter (huh?). Add some dream sequences and a few flashbacks and fucking good luck keep the timeline of this book straight.

It also robs the book of some of its dramatic tension. You already know Staal will survive and move on. You never really wonder about the choices she makes. I never really cared all that much.

That being said. I loved the detail and there were one or two really good twists. It was a quick and low-stress read. Totally worth it if you want an insider's look at a dangerous industry.

[Disclosure: This review was written by an author, see my review policy for more information]

[Aaron Cance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva Maria Staal's pseudonymously produced novel, all founded on fifteen years of her own real life experience actively working in the international arms trade, is chilling in the extreme because it confirms all of its readers' worst fears about the malevolent forces at work in the world behind the more familiar fabric of visible reality. Staal strives for greater depth, within the context of her book's subject matter, flipping back and forth between her protagonist's post-arms-running efforts at adjustment to a life as a wife and mother, and flashbacks to some of her more narrow-margined escapes as a smooth criminal, but the latter are more interesting by far, and her domestic characters don't seem to materialize quite as completely as her wicked ones do.

That said, Try the Morgue is filled with spare, razor edged prose (although I'm not sure to what extent I should credit Staal for this,or Pim Verhulst, who translated the book from the Dutch) and enough authentic surprises to propel the reader through the book's 211 pages at a breakneck pace and I, for one, found myself vicariously breathless during some of the book's more tightly wired passages. A terrific book, particularly for those looking for a point of entry to the mystery/thriller genre.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a thriller, this is a good book to choose for your next read. It's even scarier once you know that everything is based off of the author's actual experiences as an international arms dealer. Usually books like this are written by someone with a completely external view, lots of exciting detail, and no first-hand experience. Try the Morgue was exactly the opposite. There was very little detail, and this fact combined with the knowledge that it was all based off real events makes for a pretty intimidating view.
The story flipped back and forth between the main character, Maria's, attempts to fit into a normal life as a wife and mother and some of her closer calls told in the form of flashbacks. Both cases, however were written with the same exact pacing, diction, and level of detail, so it was difficult for the reader to tell which reality Maria was actually experiencing.
Which may have been the point.
I rated this book a 3 of 5 because the subject matter didn't interest me at all, and I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, but it still kept me reading through the whole thing, which is worth more points than those two things combined.
It was engrossing.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just won this book! Thank you Goodreads!

Eva Maria Staal is leading a normal life in the suburbs - having husband and a daughter, with a past she is trying to forget - this is her story. Working for an international arms dealer travelling around the globe, she enters or is put in dangerous situations.

This book was written by an 'insider', so the average citizen gets a look at conditions in other countries that are hard to imagine, much less hard to believe.

While the tale toggles back and forth ten years between that old life and the current one, there is no cohesiveness and I got confused trying to figure which timeline she was in.

I gave the book a 3 stars for it's interesting characters and the few twists in the plot.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free through the Goodreads First Reads program. At first I found myself struggling with the writing style, jumping back and forth between her "past life" as an arms dealer and her "current life" as a mother. Her writing style is somewhat choppy- short, to the point sentences with lots of periods and very little inflection in the writing. However, once I got used to the writing style- I rather liked the book and found myself completely wrapped up in her world- the stories and characters were well developed and at times I found myself simultaneously intrigued and nauseous at the things that happen in the book. I found myself absorbed in this dark, underground world that I know nothing about and couldn't put it down until the light returned.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Eva Maria Staal's debut, Try the Morgue, to be a thrilling representation of life in arm's dealing. The things this novel revealed, were stunning to say the least. From details of deals going wrong, to the victories of arms deals coming through, Staal's novel was an impressive work.

While I found the content to be more than interesting, I found I had issues with Staal's format of the book. The jumps between present and past were confusing enough by themselves, and it wasn't util the latter half of the novel that I learned to distinguish between the two.

Nevertheless, Eva Maria Staal's novel was wonderfully done. While I did not particularly care for its format, the book was an interesting read.

[Hanneke Wildschut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eva leeft in de wereld van meedogenloze wapenhandel; oorlog is geld. Zonder morele bezwaren doet ze alles voor haar homoseksuele baas. Als deze baas een serieuze relatie krijgt met een profiteur, maar dit niet in wil zien, probeert ze eerst nog alles te redden. Als blijkt dat de vriend meer invloed heeft dan het gezonde verstand, wordt dat haar te veel. Iemand anders uit die wereld blijkt nog minder last van zijn geweten te hebben. Eva stopt met dit leven en kiest voor een burgerlijk bestaan. In haar hoofd is ze nog lang niet klaar met haar verleden en via haar dochter haalt het verleden haar weer in....
Ik heb met lichte weerzin en fascinatie zitten lezen. Het onderwerp staat mijlenver van mij af, maar wordt beschreven als elke willekeurige baan. Verbazend!

[Yesenia Palacios · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by far was very intresting. I have to say it wasn’t my usual trype of read, but it was wonderful and interesting. Well written and realistic, with every page you can see what Ms. Staal is seeing. Her descriptions are so vivd that as you read you don’t want stop and each page gets better and better. Of course thats only if your into war, guns, and a bit of history. The most intresting idea in the book that even though it has all the elments of war and guns, you still get to read the blossom of a very strange love story, a passionate one that is so un perfect but so real. Its a wonderful book. I really enjoyed it.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very confusing going back and forth between current day (I think) and some other time in the past. I feel as though the two time periods did not connect very well. ~~ I know there was a plot, but just did not feel like it was told very well. This could possibly be a good book, but would need some editing with the flow of the story first. I struggled to finish this book, but felt I had to being it was a book generously donated to me by the Author and Goodreads. Try the Morgue

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so mesmerized by "Eva Maria's" life that I couldn't put the book down. The two sides of her story, former gunrunner and mother, fit together seamlessly. Written from first person perspective, this glimpse into Maria's life pulls you in and really lets you experience things on a nitty gritty level. You can't help but worry for Maria, hate all the same people she hates, and hope that everything turns out okay in the end. The entire story is full of suspense, danger, overwhelming emotion, intrigue, and deception so deep that it won't stay buried in Maria's past where it belongs.
By far the most exciting and touching memoir, of a sort, that I've read in ages.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this book is above me. I know a lot of people are saying they loved this book but I didn't. Yes, I liked certain things about it (the mystery and the reveal about the identity of Mirjam's husband and the double lives of the characters) but the book in general was not for me.

I really feel this was because the story tended to jump back and forth from past to present, from a dangerous story arc to her with her daughter. It not only made no sense but it also made it difficult to get into the story to even care about how things would happen for her. After finishing the book I just felt like the whole thing was...blah.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eva Maria Staal’s “Try the Morgue” was a fascinating story featuring no-nonsense language that situates the unsuspecting reader right in the middle of arms deals, war zones, and scary-as-hell situations in third world countries - she holds nothing back! Her unique blending of her two worlds - housewife and mother versus her “straight-laced” arms dealer persona - was a pretty wild ride, making it a unique read.
(Thank you Goodreads First Reads for the ARC!!!)