ARA Review by dublinwriter of The Czech Book: a Rainee Allen mystery

[dublinwriter]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, The Czech Book: a Rainee Allen mystery.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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I haven’t read many books with Prague as the background city and the stories that really rebound in my head were movies: Operation Daybreak and its later remake which starred the Irish actor Cillian Murphy Operation Anthropoid. Both movies were gripping, if somewhat grim World War 2 stories. The later film won the Czech Lion Film Fan Award.

Whether the Czech Book by Lauren B. Grossman and Bernard Jaroslow wins any similar awards remains to be seen. It certainly opens explosively and with a bang.

Ivo Axmann - strong name for a detective investigator - one immediately gets the impression that he’ll cut away until he unearths the truth.

It helps the plot nicely that the sleuth aka mystery writer Rainee has her daughter Jana to bounce ideas off and to help decipher the little black book which has references to the stolen crown Jewels - what one might call the subplot.

Equally, the characterisation rings true and carries the story along nicely. There’s a certain undercurrent of tension when we realise that Josef is involved with the crown jewel heist.

The revelation by the taxi driver of ‘stolpersteine’ brings a definite chill when Rainee reads the words on the cobblestones - the names of concentration camps like Treblinka.

The book’s twists and turns are somewhat amazing but the story is told succinctly enough and should appeal to thriller readers who like a bit of an edge to their reading material.

It might well win awards.

5 out of five stars

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