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2000s: Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that’s become personal?
The Exiled
What you need to know before your trail
Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe. How long will it take before everything explodes?
Travel Guide
From Finland to Serbia
Anna revisits her old town. This is where she knows, where she grew up and so has many friends still here and places she both recognises and sees how much they have changed. But this place has a strnge affect on her as it causes her to become very agitated that she almost starts to hate the place. It feels suffocating but familiar at the sametime. As she is trapped in a time warp.She will always be her father’s daughter here. Here she has a name, an association and a history that she doesn’t elsewhere.
The robbery changes her role but the language difficulties magnify. She thinks it’s ironic that in her homeland she had to rely on her friends’ interpreting skills,but then again, the language is a mix of Hungarian and Serbian and the accents and nuances she has not heard for some time.
The local police, including a former colleague of her father, seem very reluctant to investigate the events which then draw Anne further into the story and her home town. This is a town which is changing dramatically in front of her eyes. Refugees and gypsies are flooding into Kanisza. On the border of Hungary and Serbia, this is a crossroads in more ways than one. This part of the country is evoked with care and attention and becomes vividly drawn. This shows not just the reality of the country but the history and an insight into the social conscience of its people.The European refugee crisis, still high in everyone’s mind becomes a eerie and timely evocation of time and place. The Roma people who live in and around the town are certainly outsiders as Anna is to a certain extent having come home for just a visit. They face discrimination and their situation is illustrated with care and attentio
Booktrailer Review
Susan @thebooktrailer
Anna Fekete is a fine character in Finnish Noir and this time her returning to her home town and solving a crime there makes for a nice change of pace and intrigue. A character out of her comfort zone and a country not really explored much in crime fiction.It’a all unfamiliar ground both for me and for Anna which makes this stand out. It’s also different in many other ways for it does delve into some uncomfortable issues seen through the eyes of the people who live in this part of the world. The Roma Gypsies, the idea of ‘the outsider’, the language barrier and the crossroads where Serbia sits in the world – all woven into the main crime plot.
It’s a slow steady read but one which takes Anne further into your crime reading landscape.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Exiled
Author/Guide: Kati Hiekkapelto Destination: Serbia, Kanizsa Departure Time: 2000s
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