Bridge of Sighs The

In this auspicious literary crime debut from New York Times bestselling author of The Tourist an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post-WWII Eastern European city.It''s August 1948 three years after the Russians liberated this small nation from German Occupation. But the Red Army still patrols the capital''s rubble-strewn streets and the ideals of the Revolution are but memories. Twenty-two-year-old Detective Emil Brod an eager young man who spent the war working on a fishing boat in Finland finally gets his chance to serve his country investigating murder for the People''s Militia. The victim in Emil''s first case is a state songwriter but the evidence seems to point toward a political motive. He would like to investigate further but even in his naivete he realizes that the police academy never prepared him for this peculiar post-war environment in which his colleagues are suspicious or silent where lawlessness and corruption are the rules of the city and in which he''s still expected to investigate a murder. He is truly on his own in this new dangerous world. The Bridge of Sighs launches a unique series of crime novels featuring a dynamic cast of characters in an ever-evolving landscape the politically volatile terrain of Eastern Europe in the second half of the 20th century.The Bridge of Sighs is a 2004 Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel.