From Publishers Weekly
A fictional version of the author serves as the narrator of Berlinski's uneven first novel, a thriller set in Thailand. Mischa Berlinski, a reporter who's moved to northern Thailand to be with his schoolteacher girlfriend, Rachel, hears from his friend Josh about the suicide of Martiya van der Leun, an American anthropologist, in a Thai jail, where she was serving 50 years for murder. As Mischa begins to investigate Martiya's life and supposed crimes, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the woman. The complications that arise have the potential to be riveting, but the chatty narrative voice takes too many irrelevant detours to build much suspense. Still, Berlinski, who has been a journalist in Thailand, vividly portrays the exotic setting and brings depth and nuance to his depictions of the Thais. Buried within the excess verbiage is a lean, interesting tale about, among many other things, the differences between modern and tribal cultures.
(Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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This novel is an amalgam of murder mystery, historical novel, psychological thriller, and even travelogue, but its multiple dimensions are not a drawback. The premise is solid and creative: a young American freelance writer accompanies his girlfriend to Thailand, where, from a person he'd known before, he is offered a tantalizing story to pursue, "as a gift." It seems a woman anthropologist had been imprisoned in Thailand for murder and subsequently killed herself during her incarceration. The narrator takes up the story, assumes the challenge, and goes in search of the answers to two overriding questions: Whom did the woman murder and why? Berlinski is obviously fascinated by the history of twentieth-century anthropology and equally eager to share his knowledge of tribal customs in rural Thailand. The reader learns a great deal about fieldwork but significantly less about the effortless integration of fact into fiction. In this, Berlinski is somewhat clumsy.
Brad HooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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