Sandra Vega is a forensic photographer with the Rome police force. Her husband was a contract photojournalist whose work often took him into volatile environments. He was found dead several months before the beginning of the book, apparently jumping to his death from a partially constructed building. The death was ruled as accidental but Sandra has had difficulty believing there wasn't foul play involved. She receives a phone call from an investigator requesting a look at her husbands belongings. She had received them but never looked at them but his request has her starting to do more thinking. She has always wondered if he had been murdered. Enter, a priest who is part of the secret Vatican police. This man had suffered a near death episode and as a result, has amnesia. His path intersects with Sandra's numerous times as he is investigating the existence of more priest/secret Vatican police some of whom have gone rogue becoming murderers instead. It was an interesting book and I quite enjoyed the story line. Don't let the title fool you. Yes, Rome is missing some girls & it's the search for their killer that brings together a disparate set of characters. But this is a book about evil....how we define it & how we react to it.Say you had a loved on who was murdered & the killer was never caught. You are given the chance to decide their fate. Would you choose justice or revenge? Remain a victim or become an executioner?This is just one of the thorny issues the characters of this complex novel have to wrestle with. It can be read as a straight up thriller but on another level it is a study of human nature, the choices we make & how we rationalize them.It's a difficult book to summarize for a few reasons & after the first 130 pages or so, I was wishing I'd kept notes. There is a large cast & 5-6 seemingly unrelated plot lines that are set in different frames.Sandra Vega is a forensic photographer/cop in Milan. Her husband, a journalist, died 5 months ago after falling on a construction site. She's having trouble moving on & hasn't even picked up his belongings from the station. Then she gets a phone call from Schalber, an uber annoying Interpol agent that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her husband's death. After going through his bags, all indications point to Rome as the place she'll find answers.Marcus is a mysterious man with a gift for reading crime scenes. It's ironic that he can crawl around the mind of a killer because he doesn't even know who he is. After taking a bullet to the brain a while back, he has amnesia. Every night he relives the experience that altered his life & resulted in the death of this friend Devok. Each morning he remembers one additional detail & he wonders what he'll do if he ever recovers the face of the shooter. Will he turn him in or avenge his friend? Pretty weighty stuff, especially if you're a priest.By day, he works with Clemente, the man who nursed him back to health. They investigate violent crimes that have gone unsolved & as the book opens, they're searching for a missing young woman who may be the latest victim of a serial killer who has evaded police.There are other related cold cases & they discover a pattern, Someone is contacting people affected by the murders & letting them know who did it, giving them a choice....justice or retribution?In separate passages throughout the book, we meet a man referred to as "the hunter". His story begins the previous year & as it progresses, we follow him as he searches for a serial killer from Paris to Mexico City, Kiev & finally a small town near Chernobyl. His identity is not revealed 'til the final pages & it's a revelation that throws a completely different spin on the rest of the book.Each plot line is intriguing in itself but gradually the author begins to weave them all together. The characters cross paths & become involved in the others' search, affecting the outcomes. All of a sudden, you realize each story is part of a bigger picture & some of these people are not who they claim to be. Red herrings run amok & the author uses subtle misdirection that ensures your jaw will drop when twists are revealed. At one point, I thought everything was coming together then noticed I still had half the book to go.There are many peripheral characters, some in passing, others with larger roles. But the main two are Sandra & Marcus, both of whom will be profoundly affected by what they learn.I really enjoyed this. I could be picky & say there are moments when you have to suspend your disbelief & minor errors in medical procedures. Also, I found the dialogue a bit stilted in places but this may be due to blips in translation. But it did just what a great thriller should do....kept me turning the pages to see how it all shook out & didn't hand deliver the answers. The ending left me wanting more of one character in particular & I would definitely pick up a sequel. All in all, an absorbing, intelligent & intricately plotted novel full of suspense & situations that make you think.
What do You think about Lovac Na Duše (2013)?
Complicated but worth it if you can get all the way through. Different to your standard thrillers.
—deziray462
"That faith isn't simply a gift. You always have to look for it" (408).
—norsemanben
It took a while to get into this book but then could not put it down
—emilylhall
Εξαιρετικο οπως και το προηγουμενο.
—Diliviero
Excellent story, the ending took me by total surprise.
—Jmenbri
