Red Water

The story begins in 1989 on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The investigation into a young womans disappearance falters as Yugoslavia plunges into a fratricidal war.Another three decades will pass before the truth is revealed.Inspector Gorki_ain, haunted by his failure to unravel the case the first time, returns to solve the crime in 2017.

A PRIZE WINNER.The novel was awarded theKsaver _andor Gjalski Prizefor best Croatian novel in 2018, and theFric Prizefor best Croatian fiction in 2019. In France in 2022 it won theGrand prix de la literature policire, previously awarded to such writers as Mary Higgins Clark and Michael Connelly, thePrix Mystre de la critique, and thePrix Le Point.

SUSPENSE FICTION AS A GATEWAY TO HISTORY.Like Graham Greene'sThe Third Man,Martin Cruz Smith'sStalin's GhostorDamascus Stationby David McCloskey,an evocation of the sordid aftermath of violent regime change in authoritarian countries.We are barely two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, only an instant before the shift from one world to another, the shift toward tragedy for a country ultimately forged by war.