Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Sorry, but it's already come. BBC did a 5 episode series. I don't know if it's complete as I've not read the book (yet) and I've not finished watching the series (last episode is recorded).
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Cool, it's out already? I hope it gets a nice Blu-Ray release with extras.
Just finished
Lumen by pseudonymous Italian author
Ben Pastor, 1st in her Martin Bora series starring a WWII-era German army Intelligence officer solving crimes in assorted Nazi-occupied countries, which really is kind of like a reverse
Foyle's War. Interestingly enough, these are originally written in English by the long-term US-resident expat professor author, but then translated into Italian by professionals for formal publication, and have only in recent years have some become available in the actual English. (If I want to read them all and the current Anglophone import publisher does not provide with further volumes, I'd have to learn Italian and save up some £63 for the rest.)
Len Deighton's
SS-GB had a retrospective foreword where he mentioned how carefully he had to choose the “hero” of his tale, and the limitations in creating a character with a background and behaviour sufficiently sympathetic to the audience to be a “good” protagonist working in an official position within a Nazi-dominated world, who himself couldn't be too closely tied to said Nazis but at the same time, not unbelievably out of place at first.
So when this popped up as a discount sale item when I was looking at something else from the same publisher just last week, I decided to give it a try to see how the author would handle the issue in a non-alternate history world and what, if any, sorts of moral dilemmas and ensuing character development (for better or worse), her chosen protagonist would be subjected to. As it turns out, Bora is deliberately based upon a real life historical figure who did eventually wind up making the right choices, so I guess my questions about his eventual moral trajectory are pre-emptively answered and I don't have to read the other books out of sheer morbid curiosity about that.
I likely will read them anyway, since this first case was reasonably interesting and made use of complicating historical and cultural elements that could have probably only existed in conjunction in occupied Poland circa 1939, between the retreating Red Army and the then-neutrality of the Americans and the Germans trying to play nice with both even as their own various internal factions jockey for position; as well as the more immediate problem of the suspicious death of a beloved Polish Catholic nun reputed to be a potential saint with miracles and prophecies and possible ties to the local resistance.
The investigation, while solid enough, was kind of slow-moving and spaced out, as the style is more a slice-of-life tale interspersing vignettes of the assorted characters' situations and personal dilemmas associated with their increasingly difficult positions. The effect is reasonably atmospheric, but tends to read more like an historical novel with murder-solving in it, than a more typical historical crime detection thriller.
Anyway, I ended up liking this rather more than I thought I would going in and now want to try the rest (though I admit the unusual premise is still probably the major draw, more than the casework or the storytelling). I'm pleased to see that the library has acquired all the other ones available in English and has pre-ordered the next.