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Oči Lire Kazan
"Plot twists galore, relentless suspense and expert insights to satisfy anyone fascinated by today's financial crisis."—Culture TF1
From Lagos to London, by way of the Faroe Islands and St. Petersburg, an investigation turns deadly. The head of the Nigerian fraud squad is evacuated from Lagos by secret service operatives. Meanwhile a junior prosecutor in Nice probes the mysterious death of the wife of a powerful banker and a crusading journalist in St. Petersburg pursues a corrupt oligarch and his criminal business empire.
The paths of all three cross in London, where they find themselves embroiled in violent events obviously linked to financial and political interests and hunted by the oligarch's men, the Western secret services, and goons sent by Nigerian oil magnates.
A satirical, intelligent, and fast-paced thriller set in the world of high finance and low politics, The Eyes of Lira Kazan is co-written by Eva Joly and Judith Perrignon.
Eva Joly is a prominent former prosecuting judge in Paris, France, and a candidate in the 2012 French presidential election. She is Norwegian born and this is her first novel.
Judith Perrignon is a prize-winning essayist and the author of a number of historical and other literary works, including La nuit du Fouquet's avec Ariane Chemin. This is her second novel after the much lauded Les Chagrins, published in France in 2011.
- GenresCrime
187 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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January 11, 2013Three desperate people join forces in an attempt to bring down a Russian oligarch in this fast moving novel co-authored by a former French prosecutor. Each of the three has been grievously harmed, in ways both physical and emotional, for daring to get too close to the truth about bribery and payoffs in high places. Now it’s time for them to gain revenge—but at what further cost to themselves and those for whom they care?
Lira Kazan, a pretty, if not brittle, Russian investigative reporter has been tracking backroom dealings and a growing financial empire of Sergie Louchsky for several years. Mononymous Felix, with the deceptively innocuous title of clerk to a prosecuting judge in Nice, France, has stirred the deep waters of corruption while investigating the seemingly accidental drowning death of a banker’s wife. And in the dead of a Nigerian night, Nwankwo Ganbo, a man of principle paying the price of fighting for justice, is spirited with his young family out of the country only minutes ahead of a death squad.
Individually, they were beaten and bested by their mutual foe, but together, should they live long enough, they might have enough to take him down. The action in this story races from the gilded French Riviera, to the bleak and windswept Faroe Islands, from the sedate streets of London, to Mother Russia’s mobster-infested Saint Petersburg. Bowing to our new, social media world, in addition to panic-driven flights through subways and cars careening off suburban streets, tweets are twittered, email is pushed through computer mail slots, and no one can escape the reach of a digital phone.
Reviewed by Andrew MacRae, author of “Murder Misdirected” for Suspense Magazine
Lira Kazan, a pretty, if not brittle, Russian investigative reporter has been tracking backroom dealings and a growing financial empire of Sergie Louchsky for several years. Mononymous Felix, with the deceptively innocuous title of clerk to a prosecuting judge in Nice, France, has stirred the deep waters of corruption while investigating the seemingly accidental drowning death of a banker’s wife. And in the dead of a Nigerian night, Nwankwo Ganbo, a man of principle paying the price of fighting for justice, is spirited with his young family out of the country only minutes ahead of a death squad.
Individually, they were beaten and bested by their mutual foe, but together, should they live long enough, they might have enough to take him down. The action in this story races from the gilded French Riviera, to the bleak and windswept Faroe Islands, from the sedate streets of London, to Mother Russia’s mobster-infested Saint Petersburg. Bowing to our new, social media world, in addition to panic-driven flights through subways and cars careening off suburban streets, tweets are twittered, email is pushed through computer mail slots, and no one can escape the reach of a digital phone.
Reviewed by Andrew MacRae, author of “Murder Misdirected” for Suspense Magazine
February 1, 2024
Ne vem ali gre za slabo urednikovanje slovenske založbe ali za preprosto slabo napisano zgodbo, a Oči Lire Kazan ne dostavijo tistega, kar obljubljajo.
Medla, prežvečena korupcijska zgodba, ob kateri sem dvakrat celo pomislila, da ni vredna mojega časa, na nobeni točki ne doseže vrhunca in na koncu pusti bralca hladnega ter na suhem. Avtorici opisujeta podle, nepoštene politike, jezno novinarko, kvazi netipičnega borca proti korupciji in sodnega zapisnika, ki nekje globoko v sebi želi s sodniškim kladivcem zabiti zadnji žebelj v krsto pokvarjencev. Njihove poti se prekrižajo, dobro premaga zlo, vse skupaj pa je dolgočasno in predvidljivo. Zaradi preprostega jezika in enostavne rdeče niti se sicer hitro bere, vendar ravno tako hitro tudi potone v pozabo.
V prevodu tudi mrgoli tipkarskih in uredniških napak, ki jih sicer pri založbi Sanje nisem vajena. Pod črto - Oči Lire Kazan je ena tistih knjig, ki jih mirne duše lahko preskočiš.
Medla, prežvečena korupcijska zgodba, ob kateri sem dvakrat celo pomislila, da ni vredna mojega časa, na nobeni točki ne doseže vrhunca in na koncu pusti bralca hladnega ter na suhem. Avtorici opisujeta podle, nepoštene politike, jezno novinarko, kvazi netipičnega borca proti korupciji in sodnega zapisnika, ki nekje globoko v sebi želi s sodniškim kladivcem zabiti zadnji žebelj v krsto pokvarjencev. Njihove poti se prekrižajo, dobro premaga zlo, vse skupaj pa je dolgočasno in predvidljivo. Zaradi preprostega jezika in enostavne rdeče niti se sicer hitro bere, vendar ravno tako hitro tudi potone v pozabo.
V prevodu tudi mrgoli tipkarskih in uredniških napak, ki jih sicer pri založbi Sanje nisem vajena. Pod črto - Oči Lire Kazan je ena tistih knjig, ki jih mirne duše lahko preskočiš.
December 14, 2012
It's hard to know what to write about this book. It's completely out of my comfort zone and a library "grab". I found the chapter that first introduces Sunleif in the Faroe islands quite distressing, it actually nearly had me in tears, so if you're an animal lover, it may be hard to read this particular part of the book. One thing I will say is the introduction of Lira is quite confusing. It reads that she is nearly 35, yet about 60 pages on reports in-between chapters it states that she's 41!! Now, I'm pretty sure time didn't pass as it's all done month by month, however I'm left wondering if I've missed something? ....
February 8, 2013
This extremely international thriller takes place during the late summer and early fall in France, England, Russia, Nigeria, and the Faroe Islands. The unlikely trio of heroes are a Nigerian professor refugee, a law clerk, and a journalist, who work together to expose an enormous corruption ring--at the expense of their personal lives--using Twitter, memory sticks, and offshore ISPs. The fast-paced story alternates points of view and includes some bulletins and letters in addition to the regular chapters.
January 11, 2016
There's a pretty gruesome animal killing chapter that is early in the book. It almost had me put the book down and not go back to it. If you can make it past that, this is an enjoyable thriller that is a fairly quick read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews