The Confession

The Confession is a detective novel by Olen Steinhauer. This is the 2nd book in a five-book series of thrillers. The setting is fascinating, and the characters are well-developed. I enjoy reading fiction novels set in places I'm not familiar with. That said, I enjoyed the first book much more than this one and have decided I won't seek out the others after all. Call me fickle.

from the back of the book:

Eastern Europe, 1956: Comrade Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar, who is a proletariat writer in addition to his job as a state militia homicide detective, is a man on the brink. Estranged from his wife, whom he believes is cheating on him with one of his colleagues, and frustrated by writer's block, Ferenc's attention is focused on his job. But his job is growing increasingly political, something that makes him profoundly uncomfortable.

When Ferenc is asked to look into the disappearance of a party member's wife and learns some unsavory facts about their lives, the absurdity of his position as an employee of the state is suddenly exposed. At the same time, he and his fellow militia officers are pressed into service policing a popular demonstration in the capital, one that Ferenc might rather be participating in. These two sitiations, coupled with an investigation into the murder of a painter that leads them to a man recently released from the camps, brings Ferenc closer to danger than ever before -from himself, from his superiors, from the capital's shadowy criminal element.

The Confession is a fantastic follow-up to Olen Steinhauer's brilliant debut, The Bridge of Sighs, and it guarantees to advance this talented writer on his way to being one of the premier thriller writers of a generation.

The New York Times has an interview with the author. Kirkus Reviews concludes a positive review with this: "Good enough to suggest comparison with Graham Greene: place the author in the forefront of contemporary suspense writers..." Publishers Weekly has a positive review.

I've also read and enjoyed The Bridge of Sighs, which was this author's first book.