A Promising Theme Unsatisfactorily Explored
I originally had high hopes for this novel. The author, Ben Pastor, writes historical novels with a focus on WWII and the Roman Empire, two eras that greatly interest me. I enjoy and admire fictional works that bring a past era vividly to life. One author who has consistently done a terrific job in this respect has been Philip Kerr, author of the Bernie Gunther series about a detective in Nazi Germany before and during the war. When I learned that Italian-American author Ben Pastor has written several highly praised novels, also set during WWII about the crime solving efforts of a Wehrmacht officer, the aristocratic Martin Bora, I was definitely intrigued and set about hunting for her books until I eventually found a used copy of Lumen.
Like all historical novelists worth their salt, Pastor has done extensive research. She ably evokes the Polish city of Cracow in the early days of the Nazi occupation after the invasion of September 1939 with awful weather, human misery, the persecution of Jews, and the increasing tightening of Nazi control over the Polish people. The author has no little skill at characterization as well. Martin Bora, the protagonist, is a well rounded, fully fleshed character, understandable and empathetic. The same applies to other figures in the book like Bora’s sort-of ally, the American priest Father Malecki, and even to such odious Nazis as Colonel Schenck. They act and speak like believable human beings.
Where Pastor fails, especially in comparison to Philip Kerr, is in her ability to generate suspense and tension. The premise for the novel would seem to provide a sufficient basis for these purposes. A revered abbess, a nun renowned for sanctity and visions, is found shot dead in a convent. Anxious to solve the crime before political tensions erupt in heavily Catholic Poland, the Werhmacht assigns Martin Bora to investigate. Despite this initially promising set up, Pastor doesn’t seem able to create much in the way of drama. I never felt particularly involved in Captain Bora’s quest to solve the murder. A subplot involving Bora’s boorish roommate (see my wordplay?) also didn’t do much to ratchet up tension for me. This is in marked contrast to Kerr’s work. I’ve read every Bernie Gunther novel and have always been consistently pleased and gratified to find that each one was a riveting read. This is a particularly neat trick on Kerr’s part, since an experienced devotee of the series knows beforehand that Bernie Gunther will always survive at the end. It’s what Gunther must do to survive and what happens along the way to him and others that engages the reader’s interest. This is in marked contrast to Lumen.
The other Martin Bora novels may be more interesting, but I don’t feel much motivation to seek them out after reading this one. In other words, I don’t recommend this book. Readers interested in effective, good historical fiction about WWII would do much better to read Philip Kerr. As always though, I leave it to the reader to make her or his own decision.