Traffyck

Lazlo Horvath Thriller #2

by Michael Beres

When a Kiev video store is torched, the wife of the now-deceased owner—and primary suspect in the arson case—hires private investigator Janos Nagy. As he delves into the woman’s past, Janos discovers things are far more than meets the eye, and as the case is pursued further, a human trafficking plot unfolds from Kiev across the Ukraine. With mixed involvement of Eastern European and Russian mafia, the Ukraine Secret Service, and both orthodox and nonorthodox church rivalries, the race to untangle the threads of the international trafficking ring turns quickly to a matter of life and death.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

445 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Michael is a Chicago native living in West Michigan. With degrees in computer science and literature, he held a Q-clearance position at Argonne National Laboratory, and later documented analytical software.

His novels include Grand Traverse, an environmental thriller; The President's Nemesis, compared to The Manchurian Candidate by Library Journal; and Final Stroke, about a detective with a stroke.

His latest, Chernobyl Murders, is based on the 1986 disaster. The Chicago Tribune said "Chernobyl Murders is a page-turner of the highest order: from the compelling characterization to the vividly described landscape of a devastated Ukraine to the stunning cover art, Beres has penned himself a winner."
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Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw this at the library I was excited because it said that this was the sequel to Chernobyl Murders. As I reviewed it earlier Chernobyl Murders was a solid 5 stars. As a sequel the only thing that Traffyck has done is brought back a few of the key players from the earlier book. Traffyck is a good book however there are a lot of characters and with a slow start that was very confusing to this reader I went for three stars on this one. The main story is centered around a murder investigation that delves into the human trafficking of children from the Hungarian area. This can be a disturbing subject in itself and Beres does not hold a lot back so there may be some scenes in the book that can be quite shocking to some. That said I feel that Beres did a much better job with Chernobyl Murders.

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why I kept reading this book, but maybe because I've never read anything set in Kiev before. About the first 200 pages spent a lot of time leading somewhere, but I didn't know where. After that, the protagonist, Janos Nagy, ex-militia-now PI, and the Kim-Novak-lookalike recent widow take off to track down the bad guys. At that point, the book becomes interesting and the ending is quite exciting. I guess what I'm saying is that this book should've been about 300 pages instead of 444. I would read another book by this author and with these characters now that I'm used to the round-about and long scene setting and Russian-Ukranian-Hungarian-English styled dialog.

[Dennis Willingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok mystery set in Chernobyl centered around young sex slave trafficking. Neither particularly well written nor a great mystery.

[Vampyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as great as the first. Not even what I expected for a sequel.