New Zealand based lawyer Kit Chase has lost her job. She’s offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to post-conflict Kosovo to work as part of an international team. The lure of excitement and the potential for career development find her thousands of miles from home in a country riven by tension between ethnic groups as well as the criminal gangs that have risen to power. Her first case finds her trying to help hunt down the head of a vicious organized crime outfit who have used sexual assault to bring terror to the community. A missing diary kept by a Kosovo policewoman could be the key to his prosecution but dark forces are trying to ensure it is never found. Out of her depth in a place where double-crossing and violence are a daily occurrence does Chase have what it takes to keep herself safe and ensure justice prevails?
Though not essential in being able to follow THE MISSING DIARY (Crime Scene Kosovo Book 1) this well plotted, often thrilling, crime story by author Tasmin Turner includes a brief history of the Kosovo conflict in a note at the end of the novel. For readers unaware of this war and its repercussions it is a good place to start. Turner does well in invoking the people and the territory. And she makes it very clear this is a fictionalized version of the country post-conflict, but a more informed understanding of the politics of this war does allow a more rounded experience as her plot unfolds. Though it has elements of the legal procedural it is a much harder hitting expose of senseless violence than your run-of-the mill court bound novel. The characterization of Chase is solid. The fish-out-of-water set up allows various moments of exposition to be relayed naturally through Chase’s interaction with other characters and the dialogue, for the most part, is sharp and on point. As the first book in a series there are a multitude of characters, locations and organizations to be introduced. Turner provides a checklist of names at the top of the book some of whom seem to play quite minor roles within the pages of this novel but will perhaps rise in prominence as the series progresses.
The first in a series, Tasmin Turner’s THE MISSING DIARY (Crime Scene Kosovo Book 1) is a satisfying thriller, confidently written with moments of excellent high stakes drama.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader