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A Marko Della Torre Novel #2
Killing Pilgrim
The second novel in the Marko della Torre series, Killing Pilgrim is a propulsive political thriller following a complex plot hatched by members of the CIA and set against the backdrop of war-torn Yugoslavia. Early autumn, 1991. Croatia and Slovenia officially declared independence from Yugoslavia, and war is imminent between the Croats and the Serbs. Department VI of the UDBA has been dismantled, while the Yugoslav government scrambles to protect the State. In the midst of the political maelstrom, secret policeman Marko della Torre gets caught in an intricate web woven by the CIA and members of the Croat nationalist movement. They enlist della Torre to make contact with a man living in the the ex-UDBA agent who assassinated Olof Palme, the former prime minister of Sweden…
440 pages, Paperback
First published January 13, 2014
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February 21, 2015
Words are Mattich’s business…I mean in real life. He is a journalist and columnist based in London, writing for financial concerns like The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. He makes dry and convoluted financial, political, and historical matters comprehensible and interesting. He makes a second incursion into fiction with this comedic spy novel set on the Balkan Peninsula, in the region of the former Yugoslavia. His first novel, Zagreb Cowboy, was the most fun, thought-provoking, and informative crime novel I read last year. At the moment, Mattich is not published in the United States, but I expect that is merely an oversight that will be corrected soon.
Zagreb, 1991. Marko della Torre, alias the Gringo, works for a Croatian state security less than two months old. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the Yugoslav republic in June 1991, and the new Croatian government “nationalized” former federal buildings. Marko had been a member of the regional headquarters of the Yugoslavian Department of Internal Security (UDBA) in Zagreb, Department IV, which was responsible for investigating extra-judicial killings.
One thread in this novel is about the assassin called the Montenegrin, and his killing of “Pilgrim,” code name for Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, whose death in February 1986 was never solved.
Mattich brings us to Vukovar in August 1991, just months before the infamous Vukovar Massacre at a hospital in November of that year. This undoubtedly foreshadows a future novel in the series since it is only touched upon, putting our nerves on edge and placing della Torre’s wife squarely in the center of the action, while the storyline brings us down the Dalmatian coast to the walled city of Dubrovnik where the Montenegrin has a hideout. The CIA shows up and wants him neutralized.
Along the way Mattich shares the beauty of the Adriatic: “The waters of Croatia’s Adriatic are crystalline blue and turquoise to a depth of ten metres and more, so that the coral fans and black round balls of spiny sea urchins on distant bare rocks appear to be no more than an arm’s length below the surface. This clarity engenders a sense of vertigo.” His descriptions of the coastline and surrounding mountains makes one yearn to visit. And he tells us the myth of the American West thrives and the whole country grew up reciting the stories of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, the famous cowboy and Indian pair created by German novelist, Karl May:
This series is just too interesting to miss. Mattich strikes just the right tone as he introduces us to a region with which we may not be familiar, reminding us of recent earth-shattering events there and inviting us to imagine what life must have been like when Yugoslavia broke into its component states: “any sense of brotherhood was riven by two alphabets, three religions, innumerable dialects, and a history of mutual loathing.”
Mattich’s characters are richly developed and ambiguously framed by their questionable behaviors, and yet we admire and respect even the hitmen for their devotion to duty and family....all except for the Americans. The CIA operatives introduced in this novel are admired for their equipment, money, and dental work, but little else. And Mattich is funny. He catches the absurd and delivers it in such a way the one begins to imagine how nice it would be to be sitting late into the night around a small wooden table with a bottle of slivovitz and a bunch of rough-looking middle-aged policemen, shooting the bull.
This book is available in a deliciously high-quality paperback edition or for download from The House of Anansi Press in Canada.
A word about the eBook: for some reason, those cute little accent marks above the alphabet letters for Serbo-Croat place and people names (e.g., Poreč, Anzulović, and Strumbić) are not manifest in the eBook but are replaced by an annoying question mark instead. It takes a little getting used to, but the book is understandable even without having the proper alphabet. I don’t really understand why it is not possible to rectify this (how hard is this?) but urge the eBook publisher to rethink this for the future. This series is worth any effort or expense in getting it right.
A third book in the series, The Heart of Hell, is scheduled for publication in February 2015.
Zagreb, 1991. Marko della Torre, alias the Gringo, works for a Croatian state security less than two months old. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the Yugoslav republic in June 1991, and the new Croatian government “nationalized” former federal buildings. Marko had been a member of the regional headquarters of the Yugoslavian Department of Internal Security (UDBA) in Zagreb, Department IV, which was responsible for investigating extra-judicial killings.
“[Della Torre watched] the watchers everyone feared…No other secret police force in the world was as successful at killing people beyond its borders—not the KGB, not the Stasi, not the Securitate, not Savak, not even Mossad. The CIA didn’t even register as competition. Della Torre’s job was to find and prosecute any UDBA operations done outside the scope of Yugoslav laws. Killing done for the personal motives of people in power.”With independence, della Torre’s office was to be absorbed into ‘military intelligence,’ in a Croatian military in its infancy. Armed forces in every state of the former Yugoslavia would like to see the UDBA, its personnel and its files, disappear.
One thread in this novel is about the assassin called the Montenegrin, and his killing of “Pilgrim,” code name for Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, whose death in February 1986 was never solved.
--from the Acknowledgements: ”Olof Palme’s assassination on that cold February night in 1986 remains one of Europe’s great unsolved crimes of the postwar era…There are numerous theories about who might have been behind the killing and why. One is that the Yugoslav government was somehow involved. This isn’t particularly far-fetched. The UDBA may not be in the popular imagination like the KGB or the Stasi, but of all the organs of state security operating from Europe’s Communist bloc, the Yugoslav secret police was perhaps the most murderous beyond its borders—even if its known targets were Yugoslav dissidents or some related or associated with them.”
Mattich brings us to Vukovar in August 1991, just months before the infamous Vukovar Massacre at a hospital in November of that year. This undoubtedly foreshadows a future novel in the series since it is only touched upon, putting our nerves on edge and placing della Torre’s wife squarely in the center of the action, while the storyline brings us down the Dalmatian coast to the walled city of Dubrovnik where the Montenegrin has a hideout. The CIA shows up and wants him neutralized.
Along the way Mattich shares the beauty of the Adriatic: “The waters of Croatia’s Adriatic are crystalline blue and turquoise to a depth of ten metres and more, so that the coral fans and black round balls of spiny sea urchins on distant bare rocks appear to be no more than an arm’s length below the surface. This clarity engenders a sense of vertigo.” His descriptions of the coastline and surrounding mountains makes one yearn to visit. And he tells us the myth of the American West thrives and the whole country grew up reciting the stories of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, the famous cowboy and Indian pair created by German novelist, Karl May:
“Everybody had heard of Winnetou. Even if they hadn’t read the books, they’d seen the films. They were famous. ‘German movies made with Yugoslavs…based on the books by Karl May. May was a German wrote a bunch of adventures about exotic places...Most of what he wrote was from a debtor’s prison. Anyway, he’s famous in Germany and Yugoslavia…[everybody here] loves cowboys and Indians, mostly because of him…He was Hitler’s favorite writer.’”
This series is just too interesting to miss. Mattich strikes just the right tone as he introduces us to a region with which we may not be familiar, reminding us of recent earth-shattering events there and inviting us to imagine what life must have been like when Yugoslavia broke into its component states: “any sense of brotherhood was riven by two alphabets, three religions, innumerable dialects, and a history of mutual loathing.”
Mattich’s characters are richly developed and ambiguously framed by their questionable behaviors, and yet we admire and respect even the hitmen for their devotion to duty and family....all except for the Americans. The CIA operatives introduced in this novel are admired for their equipment, money, and dental work, but little else. And Mattich is funny. He catches the absurd and delivers it in such a way the one begins to imagine how nice it would be to be sitting late into the night around a small wooden table with a bottle of slivovitz and a bunch of rough-looking middle-aged policemen, shooting the bull.
This book is available in a deliciously high-quality paperback edition or for download from The House of Anansi Press in Canada.
A word about the eBook: for some reason, those cute little accent marks above the alphabet letters for Serbo-Croat place and people names (e.g., Poreč, Anzulović, and Strumbić) are not manifest in the eBook but are replaced by an annoying question mark instead. It takes a little getting used to, but the book is understandable even without having the proper alphabet. I don’t really understand why it is not possible to rectify this (how hard is this?) but urge the eBook publisher to rethink this for the future. This series is worth any effort or expense in getting it right.
A third book in the series, The Heart of Hell, is scheduled for publication in February 2015.
April 4, 2014
In 2005 I spent a day in the ruined Croatian towns of Osijek and Vukovar. A young Croatian woman in her 20s told me that her best childhood friend had been Serbian. Now, fourteen years after the Serbs laid siege to this vulnerable and barely defended region, she said they did not speak. Such a small anecdote showed me how fraught this fragile land was – and is – with suspicions and ethnic fierceness.
It is Alen Mattich’s great achievement in Killing Pilgrim to give a sense of the unease, the dread, the uncertainty that every person has to live with in the Croatia of 1991. These same two towns, Osijek and Vukovar, are poised in terror for the coming violence – and we know that the clash will be terrible indeed. The structure of Tito’s Yugoslavian police state has collapsed, and no one knows any longer whom to trust. Those who attempt to make peace, such as the doomed police chief in Osijek, risk the enmity of both sides.
Our protagonist, Marko della Torre, sleep walking at first through his assignments, is coming to an awareness of the new normal. Paramilitaries roam the back roads, and ethnic partisans exiled to the West during Tito’s Yugoslavia return to join the Croat nationalists. Formerly with Yugoslavian state security (UDBA), della Torre is now with a Croatian successor, a new military intelligence organization barely two months old. Thus the scene is developed.
The book is a thriller, an original one, whose action takes place primarily in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and in harrowing territory between the two places. (The threat in Vukovar shimmers in the background, because we know the story, and della Torre’s physician wife is working there.) The story alternates between Sweden in 1986, with the UDBA assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme (“Pilgrim”), and Croatia in 1991, when della Torre is assigned to an American investigation to find the assassin. Both stories are riveting.
[Note: Mattich, in his Acknowledgements, notes that it is not far-fetched to assume that Palme’s assassin could be an operative of Yugoslav security. Wikipedia entry about Palme: “In January 2011 the German magazine Focus cited German interrogation records in connection with another investigation from 2008 as showing that the assassination had been carried out by an operative of the Yugoslavian UDBA who now lives in Zagreb, Croatia.”]
As I write I realize that I might be giving the false impression that this book is about politics. That’s the ominous back story, of course, but what made me turn the pages was the story line, following della Torre as he traversed the beautiful Dalmatian coast in his slippery new assignment.
Yugoslav intelligence produced good “company men.” We are left wondering all the time how things will play out now. Scores of agents have histories, quarrels, vendettas, and now the ground is merely shifting sand. To say more would be treading in spoiler territory.
--
Postscript: Many thanks to Trish Rooney, who gave away this copy via her blog. Certainly a boon, since Mattich’s books have not been published yet in the US. Thank you, Trish! I have found a used copy of Mattich’s first book, Zagreb Cowboy, which I’ll be reading out of order.
It is Alen Mattich’s great achievement in Killing Pilgrim to give a sense of the unease, the dread, the uncertainty that every person has to live with in the Croatia of 1991. These same two towns, Osijek and Vukovar, are poised in terror for the coming violence – and we know that the clash will be terrible indeed. The structure of Tito’s Yugoslavian police state has collapsed, and no one knows any longer whom to trust. Those who attempt to make peace, such as the doomed police chief in Osijek, risk the enmity of both sides.
Our protagonist, Marko della Torre, sleep walking at first through his assignments, is coming to an awareness of the new normal. Paramilitaries roam the back roads, and ethnic partisans exiled to the West during Tito’s Yugoslavia return to join the Croat nationalists. Formerly with Yugoslavian state security (UDBA), della Torre is now with a Croatian successor, a new military intelligence organization barely two months old. Thus the scene is developed.
The book is a thriller, an original one, whose action takes place primarily in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and in harrowing territory between the two places. (The threat in Vukovar shimmers in the background, because we know the story, and della Torre’s physician wife is working there.) The story alternates between Sweden in 1986, with the UDBA assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme (“Pilgrim”), and Croatia in 1991, when della Torre is assigned to an American investigation to find the assassin. Both stories are riveting.
[Note: Mattich, in his Acknowledgements, notes that it is not far-fetched to assume that Palme’s assassin could be an operative of Yugoslav security. Wikipedia entry about Palme: “In January 2011 the German magazine Focus cited German interrogation records in connection with another investigation from 2008 as showing that the assassination had been carried out by an operative of the Yugoslavian UDBA who now lives in Zagreb, Croatia.”]
As I write I realize that I might be giving the false impression that this book is about politics. That’s the ominous back story, of course, but what made me turn the pages was the story line, following della Torre as he traversed the beautiful Dalmatian coast in his slippery new assignment.
Yugoslav intelligence produced good “company men.” We are left wondering all the time how things will play out now. Scores of agents have histories, quarrels, vendettas, and now the ground is merely shifting sand. To say more would be treading in spoiler territory.
--
Postscript: Many thanks to Trish Rooney, who gave away this copy via her blog. Certainly a boon, since Mattich’s books have not been published yet in the US. Thank you, Trish! I have found a used copy of Mattich’s first book, Zagreb Cowboy, which I’ll be reading out of order.
March 19, 2017
Another perfect blend of story and setting. I was surprised that the sequel added so much more insight into the real world setting and events. This story built on and then surpassed the first della Torre novel in the development of inriguing characters and their interrelationships.
August 16, 2020
The characters in the book are beautifully flawed. Most of them are nasty people you would not want to call friends if you met them. Although it is hard to find a lot to like about the characters as people the author manages to draw out sympathy for them because they are all trapped by a set of actions that can't end well.
The beautiful explicit descriptions of the coast and the mountains contrasts with the actions of the people and the war going on around them. The civil war between the Croat and Serb armies is a reflection of the wars the main characters are fighting with each other and their internal struggles.
Rebecca is fighting for supremacy through manipulation and deceit but she has no real control of her mission. The American government and the military are controlling her. She thinks she is in control because she is making the decisions on how to carry out the mission but she is just a pawn.
Marco is being used as a pawn of both the Americans and his own government. Unlike Rebecca, Marco knows he is being used. He is struggling to maintain some control of his own destiny and is wise enough to try not to be pulled into the schemes being plotted by others. Unfortunately for him this is an almost impossible task.
Julius wants only to further his own fortunes and pleasures. He thinks he can control his own destiny and any one who enters his circle of influence is of no consequence. He learns the hard way that he does not have the autonomy or power he thinks he has.
The Montenegrin is a heartless sociopath who has love for no one. It is questionable whether he loves his daughter as a person or as a unique possession. It is Marco's concern for the Montenegrin's daughter's future without her father to protect her that adds only one small bit of sympathy for the Montenegrin as the target of the American's assassination attempt. He deserves death for his history of cold heartless killings but his daughter with her struggles to communicate and her love for her father gives him one shred of humanity that we can identify with. Contrasted with Rebecca's indifference to the little girl as a person it makes it impossible to feel sympathy for Rebecca's failure and subsequent capture and death at the Montenegrin's order.
It is Marco's struggle to maintain his humanity in such violent circumstances while being manipulated by governments and self serving people that makes the story compelling.
The beautiful explicit descriptions of the coast and the mountains contrasts with the actions of the people and the war going on around them. The civil war between the Croat and Serb armies is a reflection of the wars the main characters are fighting with each other and their internal struggles.
Rebecca is fighting for supremacy through manipulation and deceit but she has no real control of her mission. The American government and the military are controlling her. She thinks she is in control because she is making the decisions on how to carry out the mission but she is just a pawn.
Marco is being used as a pawn of both the Americans and his own government. Unlike Rebecca, Marco knows he is being used. He is struggling to maintain some control of his own destiny and is wise enough to try not to be pulled into the schemes being plotted by others. Unfortunately for him this is an almost impossible task.
Julius wants only to further his own fortunes and pleasures. He thinks he can control his own destiny and any one who enters his circle of influence is of no consequence. He learns the hard way that he does not have the autonomy or power he thinks he has.
The Montenegrin is a heartless sociopath who has love for no one. It is questionable whether he loves his daughter as a person or as a unique possession. It is Marco's concern for the Montenegrin's daughter's future without her father to protect her that adds only one small bit of sympathy for the Montenegrin as the target of the American's assassination attempt. He deserves death for his history of cold heartless killings but his daughter with her struggles to communicate and her love for her father gives him one shred of humanity that we can identify with. Contrasted with Rebecca's indifference to the little girl as a person it makes it impossible to feel sympathy for Rebecca's failure and subsequent capture and death at the Montenegrin's order.
It is Marco's struggle to maintain his humanity in such violent circumstances while being manipulated by governments and self serving people that makes the story compelling.
April 6, 2019
Great book. Fun read.
August 17, 2021
I want to like the story more than I do. A fascinating setting and a character with a unpleasant job The UDBA. The problem is very little tension and the main character is incredibly passive.
September 20, 2021
An improvement over the first one. Better pacing and character interactions that aren't so predictable. The historical details provide great context, but there does tend to be repetition at times.
September 29, 2022
good. not as good first
Sophomore slump? Was enjoyable but didn’t have same urgency and action as first one. Liked it but not as much as the first
Sophomore slump? Was enjoyable but didn’t have same urgency and action as first one. Liked it but not as much as the first
September 16, 2025
This starts right after the previous Alen Mattch novel, Zagreb Cowboy. Excellent characters and clever dialog set in intriguing locales during historical events. I feel a strong desire to visit if not move to Istria now.
I didn't appreciate the paragraphs of backstory explaining what happened in the first book. Perhaps publishers force their authors to do this for sales. Explaining what happened before. It definitely jolted me out of the narrative.
Aside from that, it was good and after reading all three, this is possibly the one with the plot and climax I remember the most.
I didn't appreciate the paragraphs of backstory explaining what happened in the first book. Perhaps publishers force their authors to do this for sales. Explaining what happened before. It definitely jolted me out of the narrative.
Aside from that, it was good and after reading all three, this is possibly the one with the plot and climax I remember the most.
January 28, 2017
good book. should be read in sequence with two other books. This is #2.
March 10, 2017
Great spy novel set in the Balkens, well researched, well written and easy to read. A new spy writer in Town. Really enjoyed this book.
Want to read Zageb Cowboy, Marko Della Torre is an interesting character.
Hope we hear more from Alen Mattich really like his writing.
Want to read Zageb Cowboy, Marko Della Torre is an interesting character.
Hope we hear more from Alen Mattich really like his writing.
December 3, 2015
Killing Pilgrim is a very well written novel novel. The author, Alen Mattich, provides a very realistic story line. We start by meeting the main character, Mario Della Torre, who is an investigative lawyer for the former Yugoslav state security service (UDBA). With the break up of using Slavia, Marko is now a part of the newly formed Croatian government. He meets up with the beautiful, but mysterious, Rebecca Vees. Marko you soon on his way to helping Rebekah interview a former covert assassin. Ultimately, we find Rebecca has other motives that Marko will soon discover.
The novel paints a wonderful picture of Croatia. I could almost picture traveling through the countryside along with Marko. Such description helps to draw you in and make you feel like you are a part of the book. In fact, the descriptions of the people, places and culture almost makes me want to use this as a travel guide on the vacation to Croatia.
Overall, a very good book, albeit somewhat lengthy. There is a dual story line that tries to tie the whole book together. The subplot almost isn't necessary, but not does not hurt the novel either. The last one third of the book screams by, as the twists and turns unfold to a very interesting climax. This appears to be the second novel In a Marko Della Torre trio, with a portion of the third book introduced at the end.
If you like spy novels and intrigue, this is a very good book for you. If you want a nice novel to cozy up with over the winter, again this would be the perfect book. I will probably continue on with the third segment of the Marco Della Torre series. A solid 8 out of 10.
The novel paints a wonderful picture of Croatia. I could almost picture traveling through the countryside along with Marko. Such description helps to draw you in and make you feel like you are a part of the book. In fact, the descriptions of the people, places and culture almost makes me want to use this as a travel guide on the vacation to Croatia.
Overall, a very good book, albeit somewhat lengthy. There is a dual story line that tries to tie the whole book together. The subplot almost isn't necessary, but not does not hurt the novel either. The last one third of the book screams by, as the twists and turns unfold to a very interesting climax. This appears to be the second novel In a Marko Della Torre trio, with a portion of the third book introduced at the end.
If you like spy novels and intrigue, this is a very good book for you. If you want a nice novel to cozy up with over the winter, again this would be the perfect book. I will probably continue on with the third segment of the Marco Della Torre series. A solid 8 out of 10.
August 1, 2014
Not meaning to be mean, but this book is lacking in some ways. First off I'll be positive: Some characters were well done and could have and should have been the lead in this book. A certain corrupt cop with millions in assets being my first. I also thought the red haired agent was frightfully professional, with a enjoyably wicked demeanor that made her unique and completely evil. I also enjoyed some of the set up and how things inter-played, especially with the characters. The story had potential, but felt dry after awhile, the parts in Sweden being a nice light in a dark tunnel.
But now onto the bad stuff. I felt little if no tension in this book. In one or two scenes, I felt true fear, but mostly it felt humdrum. I liked the sense of humor, but sometimes I felt it brought down a serious scene and tried too hard to be like some famous director. But worst of all...and I really hate to say it, but the main character is a dud. I feel like he's just this tag along guy, making no decisions, taking no action, except for one time which was very late into the novel. Unless Marko gets an upgrade, becomes more decisive, takes charge, becomes sneakier, or even becomes a tad bit more observant, I'm not sure I care to be a part of his "adventures" anymore.
To the author, this isn't a slam, but a honest review. I think you have some talent, but atmosphere and tension is something you need to work on. And get a better main character please.
But now onto the bad stuff. I felt little if no tension in this book. In one or two scenes, I felt true fear, but mostly it felt humdrum. I liked the sense of humor, but sometimes I felt it brought down a serious scene and tried too hard to be like some famous director. But worst of all...and I really hate to say it, but the main character is a dud. I feel like he's just this tag along guy, making no decisions, taking no action, except for one time which was very late into the novel. Unless Marko gets an upgrade, becomes more decisive, takes charge, becomes sneakier, or even becomes a tad bit more observant, I'm not sure I care to be a part of his "adventures" anymore.
To the author, this isn't a slam, but a honest review. I think you have some talent, but atmosphere and tension is something you need to work on. And get a better main character please.
January 11, 2016
A great political thriller. It goes back and forth from the events in 1986 to the consequences in 1991. War is imminent and it is sometimes difficult for the main character Marko Della Torre to figure out who is aligned with who as the people change with who has the power.
I especially enjoyed this as we were to a lot of these places in Croatia, Montenegro and Italy, last fall and could picture the countryside and locations in the story unfolding. We had been briefed on the war and how close troops actually got to Dubrovnik.
After reading Killing Pilgrim I would love to read the other books by this author, Zabreb Cowboy and have to read The Heart of Hell which carries on in the fall 1991 after civil war has broken out.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I especially enjoyed this as we were to a lot of these places in Croatia, Montenegro and Italy, last fall and could picture the countryside and locations in the story unfolding. We had been briefed on the war and how close troops actually got to Dubrovnik.
After reading Killing Pilgrim I would love to read the other books by this author, Zabreb Cowboy and have to read The Heart of Hell which carries on in the fall 1991 after civil war has broken out.
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
March 23, 2016
A good novel with historical/suspense/murder mystery based on an historical event, the 1986 assassination of Olaf Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden. Much of the action takes place in 1991 in Croatia and Slovenia, as war is imminent between the Croats and the Serbs. Marko della Torre, who works for the successor office to the old Yugoslav secret police, is the central figure, as an upright, but nowhere near perfect figure in a corrupt bureaucracy and a country and city that is falling apart. The CIA is involved with a sexy female agent who spars with della Torre, and the assassin is in the area. A fast read, with good information and atmosphere about the former Yugoslavia after the breakup.
December 24, 2015
An international espionage thriller, set in 1991 as the former Yugoslavia is crumbling. The protagonist (Marco Della Torre aka “Gringo”, a former lawyer and military man) is a member of the secret police whose job is to investigate any irregularities or law-breaking . Because of the instability of the situation, there is lots of intrigue and many shifting alliances. Marco becomes involved with a ruthless CIA agent, who is like a chameleon. “Pilgrim” was the code name for Olof Palme, who according to this book, was assassinated by a Yugoslavian assassin (The Montenegrin). (According to Wikipedia, this is indeed one of the theories for his unsolved murder.)
May 22, 2015
I enjoyed this one even more than the first one in the series. Marko Della Torre is a very likeable protagonist, and the other characters very well done as well. Lots of adventure and suspense. The main story takes place in 1991, on the eve of civil war in Yugoslavia. An earlier story line, in 1986, includes the assassination of Olif Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden.
Anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
Anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2016
A fine second entry in this surprising series set in pre-breakup Yugoslavia. The setting is perfect for a story where allegiances, motivations and moral considerations are hard to define, if they exist at all. The villains (with some exceptions) aren't totally villainous, the heroes not very heroic - except when they are. Comparing a writer to LeCarre is an overdone blurbism, but in Mattich's case it's valid. I've preordered No. 3.
January 11, 2015
I finished it about a week ago, but with everything going on I haven't had a chance or just plain forgot to chart it.
It isn't as gritty as the first book. That being said the location and times are just as gritty. I really enjoyed getting back into Marko's world and seeing how bleak and scary it is. Onto the third and I think final book now to see how it all ends
It isn't as gritty as the first book. That being said the location and times are just as gritty. I really enjoyed getting back into Marko's world and seeing how bleak and scary it is. Onto the third and I think final book now to see how it all ends
April 30, 2015
I enjoy Alen Mattich's style. A nice combination of history, action, and humour. I will definitely read the third book in this series.
August 5, 2015
Book 2 of Marko della Torre continues the series with the same incredible writing, character development, and insights into a collapsing political structure.
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April 27, 2016Great read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews