Translated from Polish, the second in a trilogy starring a prosecutor/investigator. This man is a mess of personal problems and anti-social behavior, but an excellent, intuitive investigator. A decent enough mystery though the Polish names/places sometimes confused me and made it hard to follow some of the lesser characters. ( )

Le cadre est beau mais le sujet particulièrement épineux... Mieux réussi que le premier opus, un vrai personnage de procureur enquêteur. ( )

Muy, muy bueno: el caso, los personajes, el desarrollo de la trama, el protagonista. Muy bien el equilibrio entre la trama policiaca y la vida cotidiana del fiscal investigador. El enlace con la Historia Contemporánea al comienzo de cada capítulo te sitúa en el mundo y en la sociedad de la pequeña provincia polaca con toda naturalidad y te acota el espacio geográfico-temporal de manera eficaz.
Me gusta mucho este autor y el protagonista cada vez más humanizado que ha elegido. Espero que traduzcan lo antes posible el último título. ( )

Nicely written crime fiction piece taking place in a beautiful sleepy Polish town of Sandomierz. Easy to read with interesting characters, good dialogue and gripping story - altogether found it quite hard to put down. This was my first time reading Miloszewski and already planning to put my hands on more of his books. As a bonus, the bits about the town of Sandomierz and its fascinating history made me want to visit the place one day. Great read, highly recommended. ( )

This week I took my first dip into Polish crime fiction with Grain of Truth by Zygmunt Miloszewski. In this country it seems that there is a different division of labour to the British and Nordic jurisdictions where most of my previous "procedural" reading has been based. Instead of being a Detective Chief Inspector, Teodor Szacki is a Prosecutor, which seems to involve working with the police as an investigator but also leading the case for the prosecution in court.

The names present a few challenges. I've met quite a few Poles over the years but there are still combinations and even individual letters that are unfamiliar to me. Fortunately I wasn't reading out loud but there were one or two points when I had to apply extra thought to which character was involved in a scene. More irritating was the frequent repetition of the "grain of truth" phrase from the title. I wonder if this is a Polish idiom that loses something in translation?

Aside from that though, and the amount of time Prosecutor Szacki spends in bed with various women, it is a deftly plotted book. The final solution fits together elegantly although so did the one before that before you realised that Milozewski had woven his strands in an intricate illusion. I will definitely seize on the opportunity to revisit this author. ( )