When Ivana Ružić, the beautiful blonde ex-wife of infamous tycoon Vid Korać, is found in her Belgrade home with a bullet through her heart, it sends the media into a frenzy. Hard-boiled detective Nikola Liman is tasked with cracking the case but his investigation uncovers truths that some people wish would remain hidden. Centered around a shocking murder, Djordje Bajic’s DEATH IN PINK–a kind of noir-ish thriller–reveals a seedy world where innocence and beauty is exploited by both power hungry individuals and a pervasive, intrusive media.
In detective Nikola Liman, author Bajic has written a very well-drawn lead and a cast of secondary characters that are intriguing, multi-faceted and often morally questionable. The icy December streets of the Serbian capital city Belgrade provide a suitably bleak backdrop for Liman’s investigation into the corrupt society the victim inhabited where the truth seems elusive and ever changing. Like watching a subtitled movie, reading a translation can sometimes lend gravitas and a sheen of quality to a book that doesn’t really justify it, but here the precision of Bajić’s prose matched with the clean lines of his plotting demonstrate consummate skill. Despite the book’s length, there is barely a word wasted. This is lean, tough storytelling with a labyrinthine plot which never strays too far away from the gut punch of stark realism or casual cruelty.
DEATH IN PINK is Bajić’s fourth novel. The author’s long experience as a film critic shows through in his attention to detail in the book’s scene setting and pacing. There is a cinematic quality to much of the novel which extends to the sharp dialogue and an understanding that a good thriller depends on information subtly drip fed to the reader through action and reaction. Bajić takes time to build his world and his characters. Only then does he start to turn the screw.
As icy and forbidding as the frozen streets on which it plays out, Djordje Bajic’s DEATH IN PINK is a very well written slice of Balkan Noir. A classy contemporary thriller which provides a perfect change of landscape for those needing a break from American set mysteries.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader