Tangled Web UK Review March 2007
The Serbian Dane by
Leif Davidsen
pbk out April 07
(Arcadia Books)
at £11.99
Zagreb 1995. A writer and intellectual, crucial to the recently triumphant
Croatian independence movement, is assassinated. His assassin is Vuk, a
Serb who learned his trade in the Yugoslavian Army's Special Forces school,
his talents now utilised by rogue elements of the disintegrating Serbian
nationalists.
Chapter One and already Leif Davidsen (Steel Dagger-nominated for Lime's
Photograph back in 2002) is likely to wrong-foot many of his readers. The
Croat is arrogant and self-serving, the Serb cold but resourceful, and he
returns after the hit to a partner traumatised by events in the Balkan conflict.
Later it transpires that Vuk was brought up in Denmark, and speaks Danish.
Which makes him the ideal candidate for the ensuing job: the murder of Sara
Santanda, a Rushdie, Hirsi Ali-like Muslim dissident, visiting Denmark in
pursuit of her reformist agenda. Vuk is incredulous. He has, we learn, no
reason to support a fundamentalist agenda. But Muslims will be blamed, so
he agrees.
A far from dated premise then, especially when you bear in mind that this
book appeared in Denmark in 1996, a time when British thriller writers
(John Fullerton an honourable exception), if they dared to dip a
toe in contemporary events at all, were more concerned with Northern Ireland
than with the fallout from the Balkans.
It is something of a pity, then, that what follows is a rather more predictable
thriller than its opening suggests. Other key protagonists, in what is basically
a three-hander, include Lise Carlsen, chair of the Danish branch of the
international writer's organisation PEN, and a well-known arts journalist set to
interview Santanda, whilst Detective Inspector Per Toftlund has the job of
ensuring maximum security for an exercise that will attract world-wide
publicity. Lise's marriage is at crisis point, Per is a loner and a workaholic, but
attractive. No prizes then for guessing just how that relationship works out, as
the three key players converge for Davidsen's final thrilling shoot-out.
But what makes the book worth reading is Davidsen's ability as a writer. That
relationship is still a convincing one; the key characters (and many minor ones
too) are well-realised; the book is well-constructed and paced. Davidsen also
brings an expert but sceptical eye (sharpened through 25 years at Denmark's
Broadcasting Corporation) to the background of the novel, whether it be
journalistic, social or political. Pick up a tip or two as Vuk slips unnoticed from
country to country; note his observations of the changes in Danish society as
he reacquaints himself on arrival in the target country. The current reader will
also pick up echoes of the (later) Danish cartoons affair, for instance, in the
government's reaction to Santanda's arrival.
An unusually intelligent and thoughtful thriller – and beautifully translated too
(by Barbara J. Haveland) with scarcely a false note.
(
Bob Cornwell
)
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