Lie in the Dark

Our book group choice for June 2006 is Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman. Investigator Petric makes his living from the dead. Lately business has been slow, what with the siege around Sarajevo.

The year is 1992. The Bosnian War is raging, and Sarajevo is under siege. In the midst of this chaos, Vlado Petric, a homicide investigator for the Bosnian police, is tasked with solving the murder of Esmir Vitas, the chief of the Interior Ministry’s special police.

Vitas was found dead in an alleyway, shot at point-blank range. The crime scene is littered with evidence, but it seems to point to multiple suspects. There are the Serbian nationalists who would have loved to see Vitas dead, but there are also the Bosnian Muslims who were suspicious of his close ties to the Serbs. And then there are the black marketeers who were involved in a lucrative smuggling operation that Vitas was trying to shut down.

Petric is determined to find Vitas’s killer, but he soon realizes that he is up against a lot of obstacles. The city is in chaos, and the police force is stretched thin. There are also those who would rather see the case go unsolved, including some of Vitas’s own colleagues.

Petric is a skilled investigator, but he is also a man of integrity. He is not willing to compromise his principles, even in the face of danger. As he gets closer to the truth, he finds himself in increasing danger. But he is determined to see the case through, no matter the cost.

As Petric investigates, he uncovers a web of corruption and violence that stretches to the highest levels of government. He also learns that Vitas was not the only one who was killed in the alleyway. Another man, a young Bosnian Muslim named Davor, was also shot dead.

Petric begins to suspect that the two murders are connected, and that they are part of a larger conspiracy. But who is behind the conspiracy, and what is their motive? Petric must race against time to find the answers before it is too late.

Lie in the Dark is a suspenseful and gripping mystery that takes place against the backdrop of the Bosnian War. Fesperman’s writing is vivid and atmospheric, and he does a masterful job of capturing the chaos and violence of the war. The characters are well-developed and believable, and Petric is a sympathetic and relatable protagonist.

The book is also a powerful indictment of war and its destructive power. Fesperman shows how war corrupts and destroys people, both physically and mentally. He also shows how war can create a climate of fear and suspicion, where it is easy for people to be manipulated and exploited.

Discussion Questions

1. Aside from the threat of official sanctions, why does Petric refuse to talk to the English journalist about corruption in the local government? Are journalists and other outsiders able to report on the conflict objectively, or are they influenced by their own cultural prejudices? How does the freedom to leave Sarajevo whenever they want affect their perspective on the war?
2. Do you agree with Toby Perkins’s statement that war is “always about money, or power, or whatever form of wealth you want to name” [p. 9]? Most events in the book support this belief. Which, if any, contradict it?
3. Is Petric morally wrong to accept coffee, cigarettes, and other gifts as he goes about his work? How does he justify his behavior? Can certain rules of conduct be suspended during wartime, or is it important to maintain the conventions of a civilized society in the midst of chaos?
4. How do loneliness and isolation shape Investigator Petric as a character, and how do they color the way he deals with others?
5. When Petric is given the case, Kasic tells him, “Keep the major work for yourself. The fewer who have access to your findings, the better” [p. 51]. Does the way Kasic presents the case–along with his offers of “technical” help–support his promise that Petric will be able to operate independently? Is it possible for police investigations to be completely free of the political interests and ambitions of those in power?
6. How do Petric’s personal feelings about the victim and about his colleagues color his investigation? Do his assumptions help or hinder him? Is he overconfident or na•ve about what he can achieve?
7. Glavas gives Petric the key to solving Vitas’s murder. What other function does he serve in the novel? How do his opinions and stories strengthen Petric’s determination to get to the bottom of the case at any cost?
8. Petric’s old friend, Goran, accuses him of being “One of those poor deluded souls who thinks he’s got this figured out–who believes that survival is all there is to it” [p. 146]. To what extent is this an accurate portrait? How do his phone conversations with his wife, as well as his musings about his daughter, belie this impression of him? Is Petric’s careful, seemingly unemotional approach to crime and chaos essential to his success as a policeman?
9. From Dashiell Hammett to Tony Hillerman to Ed McBain, many writers have created detective heroes who appear in several novels. If you’ve read their novels, how does Petric compare to those detectives? How is he similar and/or different?
10. Does the absence of civil order aid Petric’s investigation in any way? Which particular acts, interviews, or strategies might have been more difficult or even impossible under normal circumstances?
11. Does Petric succumb to the corruption that surrounds him, or are his actions the only choices he has? How do they illustrate his contention that “When it seems that the future would never arrive, every day became a sort of judgment day. Every morning seemed a vindication of your behavior the day before” [p. 62]? Do the other characters live by this principle as well? Is personal survival the only thing that matters during wartime? What books have you read that offer a different perspective on coping with the atrocities of war? Were their protagonists more admirable than Petric?
12. Petric’s three encounters with the prostitute–his clumsy attempts to buy her, his cursory interrogation at his office, and finally, his day long stay at her apartment–create an affinity between them. What cues, dialogue, and actions made this relationship inevitable and necessary?
13. When shellbursts and gunfire become a sort of background music, how does it influence the reader’s reaction to other descriptive details?
14. Do you think Petric and his family will return if peace is finally achieved in Sarajevo? Why or why not?
15. The bloody conflicts in the former Yugoslavia represent one of the darkest periods of recent history. Does Lie in the Dark give you a clearer understanding of the causes of the ongoing civil wars? Why did Fesperman choose as his protagonist the son of a Catholic mother and Muslim father who, officially classified as a Catholic Croat, is married to the Muslim daughter of a Serb mother?
16. Wartime conditions are often thought to bring communities closer together. Petric, for example, remembers being taught that the citizens of London and Stalingrad stuck together as their cities suffered the devastation of World War II [p. 3]. Why is there a rise in crime in his own besieged city? In what ways does the situation in Sarajevo differ from the circumstances the English and Russians faced during World War II?
17. Petric’s deputy says “Tito lied about everything. That was his job” [p. 20]. As the leader of a fragmented nation, was it essential for Tito to tell lies? Instead of perpetuating the myth of ethnic harmony, should he have dealt directly with the history of hatred that festered in Yugoslavia? Is it possible for any ruler to eliminate a population’s centuries-old fears and suspicions?
18. Glavas says “In every tale of war there is always a tale of art, of one culture trying to steal the soul of another” [p. 113]. Discuss how this statement relates specifically to the events in Bosnia as well as its relevance to World War II and other twentieth-century conflicts.
19. The siege guns are punishing the city in part for its indifference to ethnic division. Yet within the city, there is still a tangible emphasis on other divisions–gypsies are still a sub-class, rural versus urban. Why would these differneces still be evident, given the causes that have brought about the siege?
20. Discuss how the U.N. is depicted in the novel. Do you think that in the name of neutrality, it allows inhuman suffering to continue, as Glavas suggests [p. 128]? What humanitarian obligation do the U.N. and/or individual nations have to war-ravaged areas? What role, if any, can an outside force play in restoring peace to Bosnia and other areas torn apart by internal conflicts?