What do you think?
Rate this book
Anna Fekete #3
The Exiled
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? Chilling, taut and relevant, The Exiled is an electrifying thriller from one of Finland’s most celebrated crime writers.
295 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
39 people are currently reading
1101 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
February 24, 2017
BLURB
Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that's become personal?
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?
MY THOUGHTS
This is the third in the series from Kati Hiekkapelto and what another spellbinding encounter in the continuing story of Anna Fekete.
In The Exiled, it takes Anna away from Finland and returns to her birth town, Kanizsa. Hoping to take a well-deserved break and see her family, she is quickly drawn into her work mode and her natural instincts of policing soon become her focus after her handbag is stolen at a wine festival. It seems like she is having a busman's holiday!
Anna is very soon caught up in a whirlwind of problems and trouble is never far away. Throughout her own investigations, Anna discovers a whole bigger picture and leads her to information about her family from many years past.
Kati has a very special style of writing and never holds back on any issue. I found this very refreshing, as I have in her previous books. This novel explores Anna in much more detail, and we discover different sides to her that we haven’t seen before.
This book mesmerised me. It’s a brilliant and subtle murder, mystery in a modern era. Kati draws in her exceptional writing skills and delivered for me an absorbing, thoughtful and magical novel.
I love this series, it’s brilliant. Already looking forward to the next encounter!
Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that's become personal?
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?
MY THOUGHTS
This is the third in the series from Kati Hiekkapelto and what another spellbinding encounter in the continuing story of Anna Fekete.
In The Exiled, it takes Anna away from Finland and returns to her birth town, Kanizsa. Hoping to take a well-deserved break and see her family, she is quickly drawn into her work mode and her natural instincts of policing soon become her focus after her handbag is stolen at a wine festival. It seems like she is having a busman's holiday!
Anna is very soon caught up in a whirlwind of problems and trouble is never far away. Throughout her own investigations, Anna discovers a whole bigger picture and leads her to information about her family from many years past.
Kati has a very special style of writing and never holds back on any issue. I found this very refreshing, as I have in her previous books. This novel explores Anna in much more detail, and we discover different sides to her that we haven’t seen before.
This book mesmerised me. It’s a brilliant and subtle murder, mystery in a modern era. Kati draws in her exceptional writing skills and delivered for me an absorbing, thoughtful and magical novel.
I love this series, it’s brilliant. Already looking forward to the next encounter!
December 16, 2016
When Anna Fekete returns to her home town of Kanizsa in Serbia for a holiday and has her bag stolen by a thief who is later found dead her investigation takes her on journey she never expected.
This is the third book in the Detective Anna Fekete series, however it works perfectly as a standalone novel as I have not read the previous two. The first chapter immediately drew me in with it’s stunning prose and the need to know what has led to that situation as Kati gives you a glimpse of what’s to come while effectively leaving you hanging on to find out more. The following chapters take you back to events leading up to the first chapter. The structure of this book is well constructed and works extremely well as you follow Anna each day with occasional flashbacks to the past and to other characters.
The tension is built throughout the book with chapters ending at just the right moment leaving questions in the readers mind. The prose is stunning with a subtlety that adds to the atmosphere of the setting and the events that unfold. This fits perfectly with difficult subject matter that runs throughout the book.
Kati has spun a story of corruption set against the backdrop of a tenuous political climate. Current topical issues play a part in The Exiled with the current refugee crisis and the subsequent rise in the far right playing an important role in the story. Kati has covered this with an understanding and insight and yet does not force her views down your throat. She acknowledges the plight of refugees but also acknowledges the concerns of those who lives have been touched by it inadvertently.
Anna is a central component to the story, beyond being the detective who is trying to uncover the truth. Feeling rootless and struggling with her sense of identity and belonging, her experiences and feelings mirror, in some ways, those of the refugees around her. I really empathised with Anna and she is a character I look forward to finding out more about.
The Exiled unfolds with the gradual peeling away of layers where secret upon secret is slowly unravelled. Anna’s personal journey and the social situation add to the depth of the novel, making this much more than your average thriller.
Intelligently and beautifully written, The Exiled is a tense read, perfectly mixing gripping thriller with social and political commentary.
Thank you to Kati Heikkapelto and Karen Sullivan at Orenda for the copy in exchange for my review and for including me on the blog tour.
This is the third book in the Detective Anna Fekete series, however it works perfectly as a standalone novel as I have not read the previous two. The first chapter immediately drew me in with it’s stunning prose and the need to know what has led to that situation as Kati gives you a glimpse of what’s to come while effectively leaving you hanging on to find out more. The following chapters take you back to events leading up to the first chapter. The structure of this book is well constructed and works extremely well as you follow Anna each day with occasional flashbacks to the past and to other characters.
The tension is built throughout the book with chapters ending at just the right moment leaving questions in the readers mind. The prose is stunning with a subtlety that adds to the atmosphere of the setting and the events that unfold. This fits perfectly with difficult subject matter that runs throughout the book.
Kati has spun a story of corruption set against the backdrop of a tenuous political climate. Current topical issues play a part in The Exiled with the current refugee crisis and the subsequent rise in the far right playing an important role in the story. Kati has covered this with an understanding and insight and yet does not force her views down your throat. She acknowledges the plight of refugees but also acknowledges the concerns of those who lives have been touched by it inadvertently.
Anna is a central component to the story, beyond being the detective who is trying to uncover the truth. Feeling rootless and struggling with her sense of identity and belonging, her experiences and feelings mirror, in some ways, those of the refugees around her. I really empathised with Anna and she is a character I look forward to finding out more about.
The Exiled unfolds with the gradual peeling away of layers where secret upon secret is slowly unravelled. Anna’s personal journey and the social situation add to the depth of the novel, making this much more than your average thriller.
Intelligently and beautifully written, The Exiled is a tense read, perfectly mixing gripping thriller with social and political commentary.
Thank you to Kati Heikkapelto and Karen Sullivan at Orenda for the copy in exchange for my review and for including me on the blog tour.
November 16, 2016
The Exiled – An Excellent Crime Thriller
The Exiled, proving why Kati Hiekkapelto is a brilliant writer and spearheading the Finnish invasion of English crime fiction as she is in top form again. The Exiled is the third in Heikkapelto’s Anna Fekete series that has been so popular in her native Finland, and for once there is no snow in this thriller, but plenty of twists turns as if on ice.
Anna Fekete has finally decided to take a holiday and get out of Finland and head ‘home’ to the Balkan village of her birth, Kaniza in Serbia on the Hungarian border. A chance to spend time with her mother, her recovering addict brother and see her best friend before heading back to Finland to be the crime fighting whizz that she has become.
While out at a local wine fair her handbag is stolen and Anna gives chase to the thief and a small girl whom seem to be in cahoots. When the thief is found dead on the banks of a local river, and the police do not seem interested in investigating, Anna is drawn in to the murder. As she begins to ask questions, the police seem even more distant, people want to place the blame on the Roma or the refugees trying to get in to the EU.
The more Anna investigates the more questions that are raised, and she must be prepared for whatever answers that come back. At the same time the murder of Anna’s father in 1988 seems to have links to the murder, and the more she wants to know the less people are willing to help her. She is sent anonymous notes threatening her if she does not give up her investigation. There is even an attempt to run her over, but this only makes Anna more determined to investigate what is going on.
Anna’s investigation brings her into confrontation with life on the border of the EU and to many refugees the ‘promised’ land, police corruption, the mafia and political corruption, human trafficking and how little people put a value on the life of others.
The Anna Fekete series gets better with every new book that Kati Hiekkapelto writes and once again proves that she is on top of her chosen genre. Her writing continues to be fresh and exciting, while at the same time subversive and it is the reason that her reputation continues to grow and garner new fans.
The Exiled is an excellent crime thriller that will enthral you with a brilliant story and characterisation that will leave you impressed, and wanting more.
The Exiled, proving why Kati Hiekkapelto is a brilliant writer and spearheading the Finnish invasion of English crime fiction as she is in top form again. The Exiled is the third in Heikkapelto’s Anna Fekete series that has been so popular in her native Finland, and for once there is no snow in this thriller, but plenty of twists turns as if on ice.
Anna Fekete has finally decided to take a holiday and get out of Finland and head ‘home’ to the Balkan village of her birth, Kaniza in Serbia on the Hungarian border. A chance to spend time with her mother, her recovering addict brother and see her best friend before heading back to Finland to be the crime fighting whizz that she has become.
While out at a local wine fair her handbag is stolen and Anna gives chase to the thief and a small girl whom seem to be in cahoots. When the thief is found dead on the banks of a local river, and the police do not seem interested in investigating, Anna is drawn in to the murder. As she begins to ask questions, the police seem even more distant, people want to place the blame on the Roma or the refugees trying to get in to the EU.
The more Anna investigates the more questions that are raised, and she must be prepared for whatever answers that come back. At the same time the murder of Anna’s father in 1988 seems to have links to the murder, and the more she wants to know the less people are willing to help her. She is sent anonymous notes threatening her if she does not give up her investigation. There is even an attempt to run her over, but this only makes Anna more determined to investigate what is going on.
Anna’s investigation brings her into confrontation with life on the border of the EU and to many refugees the ‘promised’ land, police corruption, the mafia and political corruption, human trafficking and how little people put a value on the life of others.
The Anna Fekete series gets better with every new book that Kati Hiekkapelto writes and once again proves that she is on top of her chosen genre. Her writing continues to be fresh and exciting, while at the same time subversive and it is the reason that her reputation continues to grow and garner new fans.
The Exiled is an excellent crime thriller that will enthral you with a brilliant story and characterisation that will leave you impressed, and wanting more.
January 24, 2025
"Nes melas yra beveik tiesa, jei apie jį žino tik vienas žmogus."
Tai labiausiai man patikusi serijos dalis. Joje nesutiksime Anos bendradarbių, nes jinai išvažiavusi atostogoms į gimtinę, kur įsivelia į rankinės vagystės tyrimą. Šioje dalyje visi atrodo įtartini, nes visi turi savų paslapčių, tad Anai tenka nemenka užduotis, spaudžiant laikui (atostogos nenumaldomai artėja prie pabaigos) bei trūkstant pagalbos iš vietinės policijos (ji labiau trukdo) išsiaiškinti ne tik kaip mirė jos rankinės vagis, bet ir kas iš tikrųjų nužudė jos tėtį.
Tai labiausiai man patikusi serijos dalis. Joje nesutiksime Anos bendradarbių, nes jinai išvažiavusi atostogoms į gimtinę, kur įsivelia į rankinės vagystės tyrimą. Šioje dalyje visi atrodo įtartini, nes visi turi savų paslapčių, tad Anai tenka nemenka užduotis, spaudžiant laikui (atostogos nenumaldomai artėja prie pabaigos) bei trūkstant pagalbos iš vietinės policijos (ji labiau trukdo) išsiaiškinti ne tik kaip mirė jos rankinės vagis, bet ir kas iš tikrųjų nužudė jos tėtį.
November 12, 2016
All of my reviews can be found on www.novelgossip.com
I’m so excited to be one of the stops today for the blog tour for The Exiled. This is the third book in a series that follows Anna Fekete and my first experience with anything written by Kati Hiekkapelto. I don’t believe that you have to read the series in order to keep up, I never felt like I was missing anything, the book stands very well on it’s own.
Anna goes back home for holiday to visit her family and old friends and shortly after she arrives, she is robbed. A man grabs her purse and gets away, but the next day he is found dead in a river bank. Anna works for the police force back in Finland and immediately feels that there is something off about the man’s death. Local authorities determine that he drowned, but Anna uncovers evidence that shows there is much more to the story. Despite everyone from her family and friends to the local police discouraging her from investigating further, she begins to dig deeper into the case. Somehow this seemingly random crime is linked to her own father’s death and someone is willing to go as far as necessary to ensure that old secrets stay buried and forgotten.
I liked the pacing of this book, it wasn’t quite as fast moving as some of the crime novels I read, yet it worked here. Anna is trying to unravel a complicated case with links to events many years ago and in order for her to get to the bottom of things, she must be diligent and determined. I enjoyed her character and found her to be interesting and admirable. She didn’t let anyone intimidate her and fought for what she believed in. She’s also very compassionate and kind, especially with children.
The setting is constructed wonderfully and Hiekkapelto managed to create vivid descriptions of the land and the characters living there. She also tackled many real and heartbreaking social issues, including the European refugee crisis, corruption in law enforcement and racism. The Roma people living in town were discriminated against and often wrongly and unfairly stereotyped and I felt that Hiekkapelto showcased these issues in a sensitive and timely manner. It really was more than just a book about a crime, it’s a book with a conscience.
I was completely engaged in this story, there were just enough details pertaining to Anna’s personal life to draw me in, yet not so many that it detracted from the main plot. Though the pace is on the slower side, once Anna starts untangling the web, the action does ramp up and the ending was a bit of a nail biter. I will definitely be looking forward to reading the next book in this smart and interesting series.
I’m so excited to be one of the stops today for the blog tour for The Exiled. This is the third book in a series that follows Anna Fekete and my first experience with anything written by Kati Hiekkapelto. I don’t believe that you have to read the series in order to keep up, I never felt like I was missing anything, the book stands very well on it’s own.
Anna goes back home for holiday to visit her family and old friends and shortly after she arrives, she is robbed. A man grabs her purse and gets away, but the next day he is found dead in a river bank. Anna works for the police force back in Finland and immediately feels that there is something off about the man’s death. Local authorities determine that he drowned, but Anna uncovers evidence that shows there is much more to the story. Despite everyone from her family and friends to the local police discouraging her from investigating further, she begins to dig deeper into the case. Somehow this seemingly random crime is linked to her own father’s death and someone is willing to go as far as necessary to ensure that old secrets stay buried and forgotten.
I liked the pacing of this book, it wasn’t quite as fast moving as some of the crime novels I read, yet it worked here. Anna is trying to unravel a complicated case with links to events many years ago and in order for her to get to the bottom of things, she must be diligent and determined. I enjoyed her character and found her to be interesting and admirable. She didn’t let anyone intimidate her and fought for what she believed in. She’s also very compassionate and kind, especially with children.
The setting is constructed wonderfully and Hiekkapelto managed to create vivid descriptions of the land and the characters living there. She also tackled many real and heartbreaking social issues, including the European refugee crisis, corruption in law enforcement and racism. The Roma people living in town were discriminated against and often wrongly and unfairly stereotyped and I felt that Hiekkapelto showcased these issues in a sensitive and timely manner. It really was more than just a book about a crime, it’s a book with a conscience.
I was completely engaged in this story, there were just enough details pertaining to Anna’s personal life to draw me in, yet not so many that it detracted from the main plot. Though the pace is on the slower side, once Anna starts untangling the web, the action does ramp up and the ending was a bit of a nail biter. I will definitely be looking forward to reading the next book in this smart and interesting series.
November 24, 2016
I really enjoyed the whole story line to this book. Anna already works for the police but in Finland. This doesn’t go down to well with the police in her hometown village when her bag gets stolen and the thief turning up dead. They don’t seem to want to investigate things any further and only do the bare minimum to try and keep her happy. Obviously Anna’s policing instincts kick in and she starts to delve into things herself which has her questioning her own fathers death.
Her father was also in the police force but was shot dead which left her mother and her family understandably devastated. There seems to be more to it though than she was originally led to believe and Anna is like a dog with a bone and can’t let go until she finds out the whole truth.
Anna was kind of hard to work out. She gives off a hardened exterior but yet I didn’t quite believe she was as hard as she makes out. There is definitely a vulnerability about her which you can see in how she turns to alcohol. Her love life is anything but straight forward either and she certainly comes across as being quite a mixed up individual.
The Exiled was a really intriguing read. I was just as determined as Anna to find out why the police in her small home town weren’t doing their jobs properly and as to who was really behind her fathers death. It certainly makes for quite a thrilling read. I would certainly read more books in the series featuring Anna.
My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.
Her father was also in the police force but was shot dead which left her mother and her family understandably devastated. There seems to be more to it though than she was originally led to believe and Anna is like a dog with a bone and can’t let go until she finds out the whole truth.
Anna was kind of hard to work out. She gives off a hardened exterior but yet I didn’t quite believe she was as hard as she makes out. There is definitely a vulnerability about her which you can see in how she turns to alcohol. Her love life is anything but straight forward either and she certainly comes across as being quite a mixed up individual.
The Exiled was a really intriguing read. I was just as determined as Anna to find out why the police in her small home town weren’t doing their jobs properly and as to who was really behind her fathers death. It certainly makes for quite a thrilling read. I would certainly read more books in the series featuring Anna.
My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.
November 13, 2016
In case you don’t know already, I’m a big fan of crime fiction, and most especially if its Scandinavian in origin. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to be a part of the Finnish Invasion blog tours because let’s face it, its my thing!
The Exiled is the 3rd book in the Anna Fekete series. I had started reading The Defenceless before this one but for one reason or another I haven’t gotten back to reading it since. However, not reading the previous books didn’t hinder my reading of The Exiled as there is only minimal reference to characters as opposed to a continuous story.
In The Exiled, Kati Hiekkapelto deals with some very topical and current issues in our world. Refugees and minority groups are a constant presence in the news and they can make for very harrowing reading. I found that they were dealt very honestly and sensitively in The Exiled.
When we meet Anna Fekete, she has returned to Serbia for a holiday and to catch up with family and friends. What she wasn’t expecting was to be robbed and ultimately mixed up in a murder investigation. This murder investigation in turn leads to some tough avenues that Anna is compelled to go down.
Buried within the pages of The Exiled, there is also corruption, suspicion and a dark sense of unease bubbling under the surface. More than once I found myself willing the characters to pay a little more attention. This is the kind of thing that draws me in, when I start caring for the characters, I know I’m onto a winner.
I found The Exiled to be a enjoyable read. Though it is a little slower paced to my usual reads, that didn’t matter as Kati Hiekkapelto has a very nice writing style which flows well. The Exiled is a stylish, secretive and compulsive book.
Highly recommended.
The Exiled is the 3rd book in the Anna Fekete series. I had started reading The Defenceless before this one but for one reason or another I haven’t gotten back to reading it since. However, not reading the previous books didn’t hinder my reading of The Exiled as there is only minimal reference to characters as opposed to a continuous story.
In The Exiled, Kati Hiekkapelto deals with some very topical and current issues in our world. Refugees and minority groups are a constant presence in the news and they can make for very harrowing reading. I found that they were dealt very honestly and sensitively in The Exiled.
When we meet Anna Fekete, she has returned to Serbia for a holiday and to catch up with family and friends. What she wasn’t expecting was to be robbed and ultimately mixed up in a murder investigation. This murder investigation in turn leads to some tough avenues that Anna is compelled to go down.
Buried within the pages of The Exiled, there is also corruption, suspicion and a dark sense of unease bubbling under the surface. More than once I found myself willing the characters to pay a little more attention. This is the kind of thing that draws me in, when I start caring for the characters, I know I’m onto a winner.
I found The Exiled to be a enjoyable read. Though it is a little slower paced to my usual reads, that didn’t matter as Kati Hiekkapelto has a very nice writing style which flows well. The Exiled is a stylish, secretive and compulsive book.
Highly recommended.
May 24, 2017
First of all, this one is really Anna Fekete 2.5 rather than 3.0 in the series; it can be read as a stand-alone. The only Finnish connection consists of a couple of email exchanges with colleagues back home, as well as a few vague musings on her part about the differences between Finnish and Balkan culture. For those who have read the first two books, wondering what to expect, here's a general idea, with as few (what I consider) spoilers as possible . . .
No sooner has Anna arrived in Serbia when her handbag is snatched. She takes it upon herself to follow up on the incident when the local police consider it nothing more than petty theft. The thief, it turns out, was Romany (gypsy), so we get into that angle, as well as the refugee hoardes coming through to get into the nearby E. U. Around the halfway point, a Romany fellow lets Anna know that her father's convicted (Romany) murderer was framed; the guy does not know who really did it. So, Anna goes off in that direction as well. The bag thief had been found dead, which Anna came to realize quickly (shall we say) was a murder; that one and her father's come together in the end. There's an epilogue which is likely intended to be a "happy" outcome of sorts, though I was mildly disgusted by it. The only point in the book that I'd say has a bearing on the Anna-in-Finland series would be that her brother does not intend to return back north.
I didn't much like Anna in the first two books, listening to this one to use as my Audible credits were a bit backed up. I don't like her any more now, if anything slightly less. We do get to meet her mother, who seemed rather a witch to me. The British narrator's voice for her reminded me of Barbara Windsor behind the bar on EastEnders, while Anna herself sounded a bit like an East End Nancy Drew.
Wish I had skipped this one, as frankly I'm interested in the Finnish setting and the lives of her colleagues. If you've read the others, and are a fan of Anna, then you'll probably appreciate the book a lot more than I did.
No sooner has Anna arrived in Serbia when her handbag is snatched. She takes it upon herself to follow up on the incident when the local police consider it nothing more than petty theft. The thief, it turns out, was Romany (gypsy), so we get into that angle, as well as the refugee hoardes coming through to get into the nearby E. U. Around the halfway point, a Romany fellow lets Anna know that her father's convicted (Romany) murderer was framed; the guy does not know who really did it. So, Anna goes off in that direction as well. The bag thief had been found dead, which Anna came to realize quickly (shall we say) was a murder; that one and her father's come together in the end. There's an epilogue which is likely intended to be a "happy" outcome of sorts, though I was mildly disgusted by it. The only point in the book that I'd say has a bearing on the Anna-in-Finland series would be that her brother does not intend to return back north.
I didn't much like Anna in the first two books, listening to this one to use as my Audible credits were a bit backed up. I don't like her any more now, if anything slightly less. We do get to meet her mother, who seemed rather a witch to me. The British narrator's voice for her reminded me of Barbara Windsor behind the bar on EastEnders, while Anna herself sounded a bit like an East End Nancy Drew.
Wish I had skipped this one, as frankly I'm interested in the Finnish setting and the lives of her colleagues. If you've read the others, and are a fan of Anna, then you'll probably appreciate the book a lot more than I did.
January 25, 2018
Trigger warnings: murder, ethnic slurs (a lot of the book revolves around the Romani community), cheating, kidnapping, death of a parent (in the past), refugee experiences.
3.5 stars.
I don't think I've ever read anything translated from Finnish before, and I certainly didn't expect it to be set in Serbia, with large chunks of the conversation happening in Hungarian, and with a lot of the story involving refugee and Romani characters.
There were things that I liked about this - the friendships, the insight into the way Yugoslavia fell apart and the impact that had on the population - but there were also things I wasn't particularly keen on. Anna's repeated "Oh crap, I still haven't gone to get a new passport" thing was kind of infuriating simply because it seemed like it happened at least twice a day and yet SHE NEVER FREAKING DID THE THING. I didn't like the fact that she ended up in a relationship with a man who'd literally JUST separated from his wife.
And I found it slightly baffling that the blurb uses the English style First Name Surname format for the characters when the text uses Surname First Name, and it honestly took me a while to work out who various characters were because I'd pay attention to the first part of their name when they were introduced and then it wouldn't show up again and I'd be all "Wait, who's this person??" until I finally twigged about 175 pages in. Whoops?
Overall, I enjoyed this despite those few struggles and I'd definitely pick up another book by this author in the future.
3.5 stars.
I don't think I've ever read anything translated from Finnish before, and I certainly didn't expect it to be set in Serbia, with large chunks of the conversation happening in Hungarian, and with a lot of the story involving refugee and Romani characters.
There were things that I liked about this - the friendships, the insight into the way Yugoslavia fell apart and the impact that had on the population - but there were also things I wasn't particularly keen on. Anna's repeated "Oh crap, I still haven't gone to get a new passport" thing was kind of infuriating simply because it seemed like it happened at least twice a day and yet SHE NEVER FREAKING DID THE THING. I didn't like the fact that she ended up in a relationship with a man who'd literally JUST separated from his wife.
And I found it slightly baffling that the blurb uses the English style First Name Surname format for the characters when the text uses Surname First Name, and it honestly took me a while to work out who various characters were because I'd pay attention to the first part of their name when they were introduced and then it wouldn't show up again and I'd be all "Wait, who's this person??" until I finally twigged about 175 pages in. Whoops?
Overall, I enjoyed this despite those few struggles and I'd definitely pick up another book by this author in the future.
June 25, 2016
Kati Hiekkapellon kolmas dekkari on paras. Jopa kirjan kansikuva on hieno, no nimestä en niin pitänyt. Parempi olisi ollut Tiszankukka, sillä se kuvaa sudenkorentomaisia hyönteisiä, joita kirjan kansikuvassa on. Suomalainen rikospoliisi Anna Fekete on lomalla Serbiassa, entisessä kotimaassaan, josta hän pakeni pienenä äitinsä ja veljensä kanssa Suomeen. Äiti on palannut kotimaahan takaisin ja velikin viihtyy siellä. Anna käy lomalla kotikylässään. Tällä lomareissulla hän syventyy erään nuoren pojan murhaan, jota yritetään peitellä. Murhalla on pitkät juuret kymmenien vuosien taakse. Silloin myös peiteltiin erästä murhaa.
Olipas jännä kirja, Anna Fekete on hyvä päähenkilö.
Olipas jännä kirja, Anna Fekete on hyvä päähenkilö.
August 14, 2017
I won this novel in a Goodreads giveaway in 2016. It is the last of five Goodreads giveaway wins from last year. I have finally gotten it read while it's still Women in Translation (WIT) month.
This is the first novel I've read in this series, but my perception is that Anna Fekete is not a noir detective. I would call this noir lite, and I definitely prefer that. I hate finishing a book feeling totally disgusted as happens with most noir.
The parallel between Romani in Serbia and African Americans in the United States was very clear in The Exiled. Romani lives didn't matter. Whites in Serbia made the exact same sort of contemptuous comments about Romani as white racists tend to make about African Americans in the U.S. The people in Anna's village were Hungarians, an ethnic minority in Serbia. They didn't like it when the government of Serbia discriminated against them, but too many of them looked down on Romani and considered them worthless.
The genuinely decent woman protagonist, and her fight against both bigotry and corruption gave The Exiled stature. It's a cut above the usual mystery. I look forward to reading the next in the series when it becomes available in English.
For my complete review see http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2017/...
This is the first novel I've read in this series, but my perception is that Anna Fekete is not a noir detective. I would call this noir lite, and I definitely prefer that. I hate finishing a book feeling totally disgusted as happens with most noir.
The parallel between Romani in Serbia and African Americans in the United States was very clear in The Exiled. Romani lives didn't matter. Whites in Serbia made the exact same sort of contemptuous comments about Romani as white racists tend to make about African Americans in the U.S. The people in Anna's village were Hungarians, an ethnic minority in Serbia. They didn't like it when the government of Serbia discriminated against them, but too many of them looked down on Romani and considered them worthless.
The genuinely decent woman protagonist, and her fight against both bigotry and corruption gave The Exiled stature. It's a cut above the usual mystery. I look forward to reading the next in the series when it becomes available in English.
For my complete review see http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2017/...
August 3, 2020
Mans otrais mēģinājums iepazīt šo rakstnieci, un laikam arī pēdējais. Pat nevaru īsti noformulēt, KAS man nepatīk, bet tāda neīstuma sajūta. Un jā, bēgļi autorei joprojām šķiet balti un pūkaini, bet pret vietējiem Serbijas romiem un ungāriem attieksme rezervēta. Tiesa, ir arī dažas vietas grāmatā, kurā par Somijas demokrātiju un citām lietām autore neizsakās sajūsmināti.
Par ko 2*? Par vietām ļoti foršu atmosfēru - vasara, vīns, ungāri. Iespējams, autoreinav ko mocīties ar tiem detektīviem, labāk kādu citu žanru jāpamēģina:)
Nujā, un par šo citātu - "Dzīve nav dzīvošanas vērta, ja ik pa brīdim neizdodas nobaudīt labu vīnu".
Un par šo interesanto dabas parādību -
https://www.szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu/...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Par ko 2*? Par vietām ļoti foršu atmosfēru - vasara, vīns, ungāri. Iespējams, autoreinav ko mocīties ar tiem detektīviem, labāk kādu citu žanru jāpamēģina:)
Nujā, un par šo citātu - "Dzīve nav dzīvošanas vērta, ja ik pa brīdim neizdodas nobaudīt labu vīnu".
Un par šo interesanto dabas parādību -
https://www.szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu/...
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
December 17, 2019
Tai trečioji serijos dalis apie Jugoslavijos vengrę Aną Feketę. Šį kartą iš Suomijos ji grįžta į gimtąjį miestą Serbijos pakraštyje. Vakarojant su draugais netikėtai pavagiama Anos rankinė. Anai vagies nepavyksta pavyti, tačiau sekančią dieną rankinę ji atgauna, nes romų tautybės vagis buvo rastas negyvas. Kadangi Ana dirba policijoje Suomijoje, jai kelia įtarimų tai, jog vietinė policija atsisako tirti šį, galimai, nusikaltimą. Klausydama nuojautos balso, Ana nusprendžia pati slapta imtis tyrimo. Taip po truputį, vagies žūtis pradeda Aną vesti prie dar gilesnių problemų, negana to - prie jos šeimos tragedijos ir paslapčių. Todėl Anai tenka pamiršti planus, kad per atostogas atsipalaiduos ir daugiau laiko praleis su šeima ir draugais.
Apie Aną Feketę aš neskaičiau antros dalies, o pirma dalis manęs labai nesužavėjo. Tačiau ši - man patiko labai. Skaitydama šią knygą, galima jausti Anos dvejones apie tai, kur ji jaučiasi kaip namuose. Ar Suomijoje, ar savo vaikystės namuose? "Argi ne keista, kad niekur iki galo nesame namuose?". Taip pat, šioje knygoje labai ryškiai atskleidžiamos socialinės problemos. Diskriminacija dėl tautybės, korupcija, mafija.. Kurstomos nacionalistinės pažiūros. Jau vien tai, kad vietinė policija atsisako tirti vagies mirtį, dėl romo tautybės ir išankstinių nusistatymų... Tačiau vietinių įniršis yra ne tik ant romų, žydų, bet ir ant pabėgėlių, kurie plūsta į šalį ir yra kaltinami dėl visko, nesvarbu ar kažką padarė, ar ne.
Taigi jeigu norite paliesti šias skaudžias socialines problemas - rekomenduoju "Klajūnus"! Anos susipriešinimas su savimi, tautinių mažumų kartėlis, bejėgiškumas ir menkumas, ir painus tyrimas, kuriame visiškai nėra jokių žiaurumų ir baisių nusikaltimo vietos scenų. Vienintelis minusas - greita pabaiga, nes viskas labai staigiai baigėsi.
Apie Aną Feketę aš neskaičiau antros dalies, o pirma dalis manęs labai nesužavėjo. Tačiau ši - man patiko labai. Skaitydama šią knygą, galima jausti Anos dvejones apie tai, kur ji jaučiasi kaip namuose. Ar Suomijoje, ar savo vaikystės namuose? "Argi ne keista, kad niekur iki galo nesame namuose?". Taip pat, šioje knygoje labai ryškiai atskleidžiamos socialinės problemos. Diskriminacija dėl tautybės, korupcija, mafija.. Kurstomos nacionalistinės pažiūros. Jau vien tai, kad vietinė policija atsisako tirti vagies mirtį, dėl romo tautybės ir išankstinių nusistatymų... Tačiau vietinių įniršis yra ne tik ant romų, žydų, bet ir ant pabėgėlių, kurie plūsta į šalį ir yra kaltinami dėl visko, nesvarbu ar kažką padarė, ar ne.
Taigi jeigu norite paliesti šias skaudžias socialines problemas - rekomenduoju "Klajūnus"! Anos susipriešinimas su savimi, tautinių mažumų kartėlis, bejėgiškumas ir menkumas, ir painus tyrimas, kuriame visiškai nėra jokių žiaurumų ir baisių nusikaltimo vietos scenų. Vienintelis minusas - greita pabaiga, nes viskas labai staigiai baigėsi.
February 8, 2017
The Exiled sees the return of Anna Fekete (first encountered in The Hummingbird and then The Defenceless). Ordinarily Anna is found in Finland where she is a member of the police force, however, in The Exiled Anna has returned to her homeland in the Balkans to enjoy a summer holiday in the company of her family.
Soon after her arrival, Anna is attending a party in the town square of her hometown and her purse and passport are stolen. But Anna has realised something is amiss and gives chase. Her pursuit takes her out of town where she loses sight of the thief (and the young girl who accompanied him). Anna finds herself at a Romany settlement where she asks if anyone has seen the suspected thief. There are denials and Anna is uncomfortably aware that she is guilty of appearing to believe a stereotypical view that the Romany are thieves.
The Exiled is a wonderfully well timed story, released at a time where racial tensions are at a level higher than we have seen for many a long year but Kati Hiekkapelto is challenging these. Anna denounces the prejudices and the author also ensures she highlights the plight that refugees face, it is done with simple elegant prose and the story benefits from the compassion displayed.
Anna’s hunt for her thief takes an unexpected development when his body is found the next day. The local police do not seem keen to investigate and declare the death accidental. Anna has doubts and begins her own investigation but someone is not happy with this decision and soon Anna will find herself in danger.
Despite being the third book in the series it can easily be read as a stand-alone novel and for new readers this is a great introduction to Kati Hiekkapelto’s books. I enjoyed The Exiled (as I did The Defenceless when I read it last year) and would encourage everyone to seek out these books.
Soon after her arrival, Anna is attending a party in the town square of her hometown and her purse and passport are stolen. But Anna has realised something is amiss and gives chase. Her pursuit takes her out of town where she loses sight of the thief (and the young girl who accompanied him). Anna finds herself at a Romany settlement where she asks if anyone has seen the suspected thief. There are denials and Anna is uncomfortably aware that she is guilty of appearing to believe a stereotypical view that the Romany are thieves.
The Exiled is a wonderfully well timed story, released at a time where racial tensions are at a level higher than we have seen for many a long year but Kati Hiekkapelto is challenging these. Anna denounces the prejudices and the author also ensures she highlights the plight that refugees face, it is done with simple elegant prose and the story benefits from the compassion displayed.
Anna’s hunt for her thief takes an unexpected development when his body is found the next day. The local police do not seem keen to investigate and declare the death accidental. Anna has doubts and begins her own investigation but someone is not happy with this decision and soon Anna will find herself in danger.
Despite being the third book in the series it can easily be read as a stand-alone novel and for new readers this is a great introduction to Kati Hiekkapelto’s books. I enjoyed The Exiled (as I did The Defenceless when I read it last year) and would encourage everyone to seek out these books.
November 27, 2019
Tai jau trečioji dalis apie detektyvę Jugoslavijos vengrę Aną Feketę, dar vaikystėje imigravusią į Suomiją ir ten praleidusią visą gyvenimą. Tiesa ši knyga skirta jos gimtinei, jos tikriesiems namams, kuriuos ji myli, bet supranta, kad visgi jos vieta jau šaltojoje Suomijoje.
Kaip ir prieš tai buvusiose dalyse, taip ir šioje autorė daug kalba apie pabėgelius, jų gyvenimo sąlygas, kokiomis sąlygomis jie renkasi bėgti iš savo namų ir kodėl tikisi geresnio gyvenimo svetur.
Tiesa prisideda naujai gvildenamos problemos – tai čigonai ir korupcija. Koks aplinkinių požiūris į tuos, kuriuos mes pašiepiamai vadiname čigonais, kokia jų padėtis visuomenėje ir kokia jų pačių nuomonė apie save? Buvo tikrai įdomu susidurti su tokiu klausimu, nes iki šiol dar neteko per daug gilintis į tai. O toks platus autorės akiratis iš ties žavi. Na o korupcija, čia jau turbūt nereikia per daug išsiplėsti. Visi žinome kas tai yra ir kaip sunku kai tos blogio šaknys įsikerojusios taip, jog negali pasitikėti net artimiausiu žmogumi.
Tad apie ką pati knyga (be tų sunkių kasdienių temų) 🙂 ? Ana grįžta namo atostogoms į gimtąjį miestą Serbijos pakraštyje. Atrodytu visai atsitiktinai pavogta jos rankinė netūrėtų sugadinti Anai nuotaikos, bet tai pasirodo esama tik ledkalnio viršūnės, o Ana nebūtų detektyvė, jei nesiimtų narplioti bylos pati. Tiesa ji tiki, kad ras tikrąjį atsakymą dėl rankinę pavogusio jaunuolio žūties ir toliau tęs atostogas. O bet tačiau… Pradeda skleisti tokia “sena ir apdulkėjusi” nusikaltimų virtinė, kad jai nebelieka nieko kito, kaip tik stačia galva nerti į praeities “purvyną” ir atkapstyti tai ko giliai širdyje net pati nenori.
Intriguojanti ir užkabinanti knyga, kuri tikrai neleis nuobodžiauti! O detektyvas, kuris sugeba “paklibinti” ir kitus svarbius klausimus, man yra tarsi šviežio oro gūsis, tarp nesibaigiančių šio žanro nusikaltimų ir nusikaltėlių gaudymo scenų.
Kaip ir prieš tai buvusiose dalyse, taip ir šioje autorė daug kalba apie pabėgelius, jų gyvenimo sąlygas, kokiomis sąlygomis jie renkasi bėgti iš savo namų ir kodėl tikisi geresnio gyvenimo svetur.
Tiesa prisideda naujai gvildenamos problemos – tai čigonai ir korupcija. Koks aplinkinių požiūris į tuos, kuriuos mes pašiepiamai vadiname čigonais, kokia jų padėtis visuomenėje ir kokia jų pačių nuomonė apie save? Buvo tikrai įdomu susidurti su tokiu klausimu, nes iki šiol dar neteko per daug gilintis į tai. O toks platus autorės akiratis iš ties žavi. Na o korupcija, čia jau turbūt nereikia per daug išsiplėsti. Visi žinome kas tai yra ir kaip sunku kai tos blogio šaknys įsikerojusios taip, jog negali pasitikėti net artimiausiu žmogumi.
Tad apie ką pati knyga (be tų sunkių kasdienių temų) 🙂 ? Ana grįžta namo atostogoms į gimtąjį miestą Serbijos pakraštyje. Atrodytu visai atsitiktinai pavogta jos rankinė netūrėtų sugadinti Anai nuotaikos, bet tai pasirodo esama tik ledkalnio viršūnės, o Ana nebūtų detektyvė, jei nesiimtų narplioti bylos pati. Tiesa ji tiki, kad ras tikrąjį atsakymą dėl rankinę pavogusio jaunuolio žūties ir toliau tęs atostogas. O bet tačiau… Pradeda skleisti tokia “sena ir apdulkėjusi” nusikaltimų virtinė, kad jai nebelieka nieko kito, kaip tik stačia galva nerti į praeities “purvyną” ir atkapstyti tai ko giliai širdyje net pati nenori.
Intriguojanti ir užkabinanti knyga, kuri tikrai neleis nuobodžiauti! O detektyvas, kuris sugeba “paklibinti” ir kitus svarbius klausimus, man yra tarsi šviežio oro gūsis, tarp nesibaigiančių šio žanro nusikaltimų ir nusikaltėlių gaudymo scenų.
December 16, 2016
When Anna Fekete returns to the town where she was born to spend the summer with her family she has plans for nothing more than a bit of relaxation; some gentle exercise, to bit of swimming in the local river and to catch up with old friends. When her handbag is stolen while on a night out, her passport and credit card taken along with it, Anna’s dreams of a peaceful holiday are shattered. The police soon recover her bag but with one small and one rather large issue. Her passport and credit card are long gone but, more disturbingly, the man suspected of the theft is dead, his body found along the riverbank.
As the suspect, the dead man, is a local Romani and the bag has been recovered, the police don’t seem all that interested in investigating any further. They encourage Anna to let it go, to just go to the embassy in Belgrade to get a replacement passport, enjoy her holiday and move on. They tell her that the case is closed, that the man drowned accidentally and there is nothing more to be done. But that isn’t good enough for Anna. She wants more proof. Nothing seems to add up and the man, at the very least, had an accomplice; a young girl who has yet to be found.
Angry at how easily the police dismiss the case, Anna decides to investigate herself, much to her mother’s disgust. She wants Anna to walk away too, to let sleeping dogs lie and to not put herself in harms way. She has lost too much already. Not swayed by the police or her own mother’s pleas, Anna enlists the help of her friend, Réka and a young Hungarian police office, Peter, to help her trace the identity of the young man and find the missing girl.
As she looks deeper into the case, finds out more about the young dead Romani, she begins to understand the deep rooted prejudice towards Romani community and the refugees who live around the town of Kanizsa. And the case may not be as random as Anna first thought. Somebody seems to be determined to stop her investigating further, afraid that she will uncover a long buried miscarriage of justice with disturbing links to the past.
…
Let me just start out by saying that ‘The Exiled’ is absolutely brilliant. Set over just a fortnight of Anna’s holiday, the story is a gripping, multi-layered look into a world of deception and cover ups, in which prejudice is worn as a very thin disguise and people are declared guilty of crimes by simple virtue of the community into which they are born.
The theme of separation, of division, is rife throughout the book, from the language barrier between the Hungarian and Serbian speaking residents of Kanizsa, the distant relationship that Anna now has with her family, especially her mother, to the contempt that local residents hold for the Romani community and the growing refugee encampment on the edge of the town. In that respect it is very topical, and Hiekkapelto touches upon socio-economic and political issues which are rife across Europe, not just in Serbia but in all communities and countries affected by uncontrolled immigration and the growing refugee crisis, for example the growing support for far-right politics and nationalism.
The situation is very sympathetically written, the understanding of the refugee crisis, the exploitation and suffering they endure clearly well researched and clearly resonates with the author as it will with the reader. The prejudice on the page is not over played, it is not gratuitous in violence or abuse towards anyone, but it is abundant and it is expressed very clearly without appearing in a judgemental or preaching manner. This is achieved through the subtle, and not so subtle comments and barbs at another’s expense. The prejudgement that all of the Romani are the same; lazy, ignorant. Thieves.
While Anna does not share this view, she is but one visitor in a growing community of haters and the lack of tolerance in the town is not what she is used to. She is not without her scepticism of some of the Romani ways, but she is at the very least accepting of them. She is after all, now merely a visitor in her own country. Not quite an outsider but not truly belonging either. She understands or, should I say follows, few of the local customs anymore, being so more in tune with Finland. She is bewildered by her friends attitudes but constantly chastising herself for comparing one country, one community, one situation against another, the exact thing she criticises them for.
There are so many layers to this book that I can only describe it as being a bit like an onion (and bear with me here). The outer layer, the main premise of the story, is that of the theft of Anna’s bag and the subsequent death of the thief. But as you peel back the layers, one by one, each new layer reveals another element of deception and corruption which builds not only the tension, but the feeling of one almighty cover up. But as to how far this corruption, this blight, infects our story , it is so hard to tell. You need to cut right to the heart of it to find out.
And a bit like chopping an onion, there were times when I felt that I wanted to cry. When exploring the relationship between the young girl Dzsenifer and her brother, of how he protected her and how she missed him, it was so touching. So were the times Anna and her mother thought and spoke of the family that they had both lost. And, as throughout Anna’s investigation the startling truth of the story becomes clear, you cannot help but feel for those impacted by the lies from so many years ago.
The plot is gripping, Anna’s fierce determination to find the truth utterly compelling. Faced with the threat of the Mafia, an anonymous antagonist and so many people lying to her, she will not be deterred. She is focused only on the truth, no matter the personal consequences and I love the grittiness of her character. She has prioritised career over family, and yet her friends and her family, especially her brother, are all important to her. She is human, she is fierce, even stubborn, but she is also engaging and very likeable.
This is the third book in the Anna Fekete series, my first I’m ashamed to admit, and I can clearly see Anna has a bit of history which I am now desperate to go back and learn about. I have books 1 and 2 waiting on my kindle and as soon as I can I shall be joining Anna in her adopted home country of Finland. That said, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage to be entering the series late on. This can easily be read as a standalone. The sense of place I got from reading the way in Kati Hiekkapelto described Serbia, the language and imagery so clear, I almost felt I was there myself. I can only imagine how this will translate into setting in the first two books. And speaking of translation, a flawless job by David Hackston. The fluidity of the text is absolutely perfect.
As the suspect, the dead man, is a local Romani and the bag has been recovered, the police don’t seem all that interested in investigating any further. They encourage Anna to let it go, to just go to the embassy in Belgrade to get a replacement passport, enjoy her holiday and move on. They tell her that the case is closed, that the man drowned accidentally and there is nothing more to be done. But that isn’t good enough for Anna. She wants more proof. Nothing seems to add up and the man, at the very least, had an accomplice; a young girl who has yet to be found.
Angry at how easily the police dismiss the case, Anna decides to investigate herself, much to her mother’s disgust. She wants Anna to walk away too, to let sleeping dogs lie and to not put herself in harms way. She has lost too much already. Not swayed by the police or her own mother’s pleas, Anna enlists the help of her friend, Réka and a young Hungarian police office, Peter, to help her trace the identity of the young man and find the missing girl.
As she looks deeper into the case, finds out more about the young dead Romani, she begins to understand the deep rooted prejudice towards Romani community and the refugees who live around the town of Kanizsa. And the case may not be as random as Anna first thought. Somebody seems to be determined to stop her investigating further, afraid that she will uncover a long buried miscarriage of justice with disturbing links to the past.
…
Let me just start out by saying that ‘The Exiled’ is absolutely brilliant. Set over just a fortnight of Anna’s holiday, the story is a gripping, multi-layered look into a world of deception and cover ups, in which prejudice is worn as a very thin disguise and people are declared guilty of crimes by simple virtue of the community into which they are born.
The theme of separation, of division, is rife throughout the book, from the language barrier between the Hungarian and Serbian speaking residents of Kanizsa, the distant relationship that Anna now has with her family, especially her mother, to the contempt that local residents hold for the Romani community and the growing refugee encampment on the edge of the town. In that respect it is very topical, and Hiekkapelto touches upon socio-economic and political issues which are rife across Europe, not just in Serbia but in all communities and countries affected by uncontrolled immigration and the growing refugee crisis, for example the growing support for far-right politics and nationalism.
The situation is very sympathetically written, the understanding of the refugee crisis, the exploitation and suffering they endure clearly well researched and clearly resonates with the author as it will with the reader. The prejudice on the page is not over played, it is not gratuitous in violence or abuse towards anyone, but it is abundant and it is expressed very clearly without appearing in a judgemental or preaching manner. This is achieved through the subtle, and not so subtle comments and barbs at another’s expense. The prejudgement that all of the Romani are the same; lazy, ignorant. Thieves.
While Anna does not share this view, she is but one visitor in a growing community of haters and the lack of tolerance in the town is not what she is used to. She is not without her scepticism of some of the Romani ways, but she is at the very least accepting of them. She is after all, now merely a visitor in her own country. Not quite an outsider but not truly belonging either. She understands or, should I say follows, few of the local customs anymore, being so more in tune with Finland. She is bewildered by her friends attitudes but constantly chastising herself for comparing one country, one community, one situation against another, the exact thing she criticises them for.
There are so many layers to this book that I can only describe it as being a bit like an onion (and bear with me here). The outer layer, the main premise of the story, is that of the theft of Anna’s bag and the subsequent death of the thief. But as you peel back the layers, one by one, each new layer reveals another element of deception and corruption which builds not only the tension, but the feeling of one almighty cover up. But as to how far this corruption, this blight, infects our story , it is so hard to tell. You need to cut right to the heart of it to find out.
And a bit like chopping an onion, there were times when I felt that I wanted to cry. When exploring the relationship between the young girl Dzsenifer and her brother, of how he protected her and how she missed him, it was so touching. So were the times Anna and her mother thought and spoke of the family that they had both lost. And, as throughout Anna’s investigation the startling truth of the story becomes clear, you cannot help but feel for those impacted by the lies from so many years ago.
The plot is gripping, Anna’s fierce determination to find the truth utterly compelling. Faced with the threat of the Mafia, an anonymous antagonist and so many people lying to her, she will not be deterred. She is focused only on the truth, no matter the personal consequences and I love the grittiness of her character. She has prioritised career over family, and yet her friends and her family, especially her brother, are all important to her. She is human, she is fierce, even stubborn, but she is also engaging and very likeable.
This is the third book in the Anna Fekete series, my first I’m ashamed to admit, and I can clearly see Anna has a bit of history which I am now desperate to go back and learn about. I have books 1 and 2 waiting on my kindle and as soon as I can I shall be joining Anna in her adopted home country of Finland. That said, I didn’t feel at a disadvantage to be entering the series late on. This can easily be read as a standalone. The sense of place I got from reading the way in Kati Hiekkapelto described Serbia, the language and imagery so clear, I almost felt I was there myself. I can only imagine how this will translate into setting in the first two books. And speaking of translation, a flawless job by David Hackston. The fluidity of the text is absolutely perfect.
February 19, 2020
“Kas aš? Iš ko susideda žmogaus vidinis “aš”? Iš kalbos? Turiu jų dvi. Iš namų? Jų irgi du. Iš darbo, draugų, pomėgių? Pernelyg paviršutiniška. Iš šeimos, šaknų. Kas man iš jų liko? Tėvo atminimas. Prisiminimas, prie kurio buvo netikėtai prispausta žaižaruojanti geležis ir įspaustas įdagas, sukėlęs degėsių dvoką.”
Nors pats Anos Fekete kaip detektyvės tipažas šiuo atveju man “nelimpantis”, o kartais net erzinantis ir balansuojantis ties banalumo ir amžinos aukos ribos, iš esmės Kati Hiekkapelto detektyvų išskirtinimas, o ir stiprybė, yra ta, kad juose be smurtinių nusikaltimų dar yra nagrinėjamos įvairios nūdienos problemos, per kurias, nors gal ir netiesiogaiai atsiskleidžia ir nusikaltimo motyvai (taip, pagrindiniai motyvai yra meilė arba pinigai, bet... labai retai susimąstoma, kodėl).
“Iš patirties Ana žinojo, kad mažumos dažnai mėgdavo išsitraukti “rasizmo kortą”. Dėl visų nesėkmių ir įsivaizduojamų neteisybių kaltinti vyraujančius stereotipus ir hegemoniją. <...> Kartą Ana buvo pagalvojusi, kad rasizmas ir ksenofobija suteikė mažumoms iškreiptą sakramentą, it nuodėmių atleidimą ar amnestiją, kuri niekam neatnešė palengvėjimo, tik dar labiau didino prarają ir augino neapykantą.”
Nors pats Anos Fekete kaip detektyvės tipažas šiuo atveju man “nelimpantis”, o kartais net erzinantis ir balansuojantis ties banalumo ir amžinos aukos ribos, iš esmės Kati Hiekkapelto detektyvų išskirtinimas, o ir stiprybė, yra ta, kad juose be smurtinių nusikaltimų dar yra nagrinėjamos įvairios nūdienos problemos, per kurias, nors gal ir netiesiogaiai atsiskleidžia ir nusikaltimo motyvai (taip, pagrindiniai motyvai yra meilė arba pinigai, bet... labai retai susimąstoma, kodėl).
“Iš patirties Ana žinojo, kad mažumos dažnai mėgdavo išsitraukti “rasizmo kortą”. Dėl visų nesėkmių ir įsivaizduojamų neteisybių kaltinti vyraujančius stereotipus ir hegemoniją. <...> Kartą Ana buvo pagalvojusi, kad rasizmas ir ksenofobija suteikė mažumoms iškreiptą sakramentą, it nuodėmių atleidimą ar amnestiją, kuri niekam neatnešė palengvėjimo, tik dar labiau didino prarają ir augino neapykantą.”
January 8, 2021
This is not your usual mystery where there is a detective, either police or private. Well, OK, Anna Fekete is a detective when she is at home in Finland. She has come home to her native town (which is now in Serbia) to visit family. She is on holiday and definitely off-duty. But her purse is stolen - including her passport - and the police aren't interested.
For me, the prose isn't smooth and vibrant as I like. At first, I just noticed how different it is. I came to see how well it fits the story, however. I figured out how to simply recognize the words that were Hungarian or Serb or whatever without having to hear them. I thought the characterization of Anna is what makes this such a good read. She likes being a detective, like her father was. In other areas of her life she's not so sure who she is. This felt real - not everyone is confident about knowing oneself. As with nearly every mystery novel, it is the plot that matters. This does not disappoint.
Hiekkapelto is a new author for me. I did not realize this is part of a series (and why not?!!), and not the first in the series. Because I thought it a stand alone, it worked for me. I'm not going to rush out and acquire the earlier installments, but I would be happy to find myself in front of another eventually. This is not a strong 4-stars, but I'm happy that it falls somewhere in that range.
For me, the prose isn't smooth and vibrant as I like. At first, I just noticed how different it is. I came to see how well it fits the story, however. I figured out how to simply recognize the words that were Hungarian or Serb or whatever without having to hear them. I thought the characterization of Anna is what makes this such a good read. She likes being a detective, like her father was. In other areas of her life she's not so sure who she is. This felt real - not everyone is confident about knowing oneself. As with nearly every mystery novel, it is the plot that matters. This does not disappoint.
Hiekkapelto is a new author for me. I did not realize this is part of a series (and why not?!!), and not the first in the series. Because I thought it a stand alone, it worked for me. I'm not going to rush out and acquire the earlier installments, but I would be happy to find myself in front of another eventually. This is not a strong 4-stars, but I'm happy that it falls somewhere in that range.
November 26, 2016
I'm grateful to Orenda for a review copy of the book.
As readers of Anna's earlier adventures will know Inspector Fekete is a Finnish citizen, but she's from Serbia, originally, a refugee from the civil war that broke up Yugoslavia. And in this book, she's home for a holiday. (Needless to say, things don't go smoothly). To add a wrinkle to things, Anna is ethnically Hungarian - that's her mother tongue - and the book makes passing references to the use of Hungarian rather than Serbian at times. So - just to be clear - I'm reviewing the English translation of a book written in Finnish about a woman from Serbia who has settled in Finland but is also Hungarian.
I think that's rather wonderful. At a time when strutting idiots are doing their best to stoke hatred and divisions and draw neat little boxes all around us, here is a book celebrating the wonderful, true messiness of life in Europe.
Of course, as you'd expect, it really does get messy for Anna. One of the themes of the book is precisely her lack of roots. While she's happily settled in Finland, it isn't home, any more than Kanizsa, the village she originally came from, is home. Or perhaps both are? With a father who died when she was a girl, and a brother killed in the war, she spends much of this book considering her identity - mainly through the lens of the Serbian culture: the casual attitude to life, from things like eating, drinking and smoking to not wearing seatbelts or indeed, when on the river, lifejackets. Small things, but significant. Caught between the culture she grew up with and that of her original home, Anna's ready to follow anything that promises to root her.
So when she stumbles on a mystery surrounding her father's death, we know she won't follow the wise advice of everyone around her and leave well alone.
That's not just down to mere curiosity of course: as in her previous cases we see a doggedness in Anna - she won't be told what to do, pursuing first the thief who stole her bag then the murderer who killed him and, finally, the little girl left alone and unprotected by that death. One rather pities anyone who gets in Anna's way.
Like the last book in this series, The Defenceless, The Exiled is preoccupied with the refugee crisis facing Europe. (It's interesting how one's natural instinct is to phrase this as a problem for Europe - when of course the point is that it's at worst, a minor problem for Europe but a catastrophe for the unfortunates who have had to flee their homes). Hiekkapelto dissects attitudes to the refugees and shows normal people being variously heroic, inhuman or just unheeding about it all. She also rather deftly displays the workings of society in Kanisza - the local political fixer, the police, the priest, the Romani who were treated as bottom of the pile until the refugees came along. It's a far from ideal society, perhaps, but it's a place Anna understands deeply, even if she couldn't live there, and being 'home' for a while only adds to her sense of alienation.
In many ways this is then as much a book about belonging (or not) as it is a straight crime story. At times the theft/ murder plot almost vanishes to be replaced by this study in (dis)location, illustrated not only through the refugees but also in Anna herself. A recurring motif is Anna's stolen passport which of course she needs to get back to Finland at the end of her stay. She keeps forgetting to report it and collect a new one. What does that say? Yes, Anna is busy with her informal (yet still pretty sophisticated) investigation - but there seems a little more to it than that. And the local boy with whim she has a brief fling (to her mother's disapproval. Real love, lust, or - perhaps - a need for something solid in her life (despite angry words when her mother urges her to settle down).
It's difficult to say. We'll have to read more about Anna and find out.
An excellent further instalment to this series which only deepens the reader's understanding and sympathy for Anna (even though she can be a bit awkward at times...)
As readers of Anna's earlier adventures will know Inspector Fekete is a Finnish citizen, but she's from Serbia, originally, a refugee from the civil war that broke up Yugoslavia. And in this book, she's home for a holiday. (Needless to say, things don't go smoothly). To add a wrinkle to things, Anna is ethnically Hungarian - that's her mother tongue - and the book makes passing references to the use of Hungarian rather than Serbian at times. So - just to be clear - I'm reviewing the English translation of a book written in Finnish about a woman from Serbia who has settled in Finland but is also Hungarian.
I think that's rather wonderful. At a time when strutting idiots are doing their best to stoke hatred and divisions and draw neat little boxes all around us, here is a book celebrating the wonderful, true messiness of life in Europe.
Of course, as you'd expect, it really does get messy for Anna. One of the themes of the book is precisely her lack of roots. While she's happily settled in Finland, it isn't home, any more than Kanizsa, the village she originally came from, is home. Or perhaps both are? With a father who died when she was a girl, and a brother killed in the war, she spends much of this book considering her identity - mainly through the lens of the Serbian culture: the casual attitude to life, from things like eating, drinking and smoking to not wearing seatbelts or indeed, when on the river, lifejackets. Small things, but significant. Caught between the culture she grew up with and that of her original home, Anna's ready to follow anything that promises to root her.
So when she stumbles on a mystery surrounding her father's death, we know she won't follow the wise advice of everyone around her and leave well alone.
That's not just down to mere curiosity of course: as in her previous cases we see a doggedness in Anna - she won't be told what to do, pursuing first the thief who stole her bag then the murderer who killed him and, finally, the little girl left alone and unprotected by that death. One rather pities anyone who gets in Anna's way.
Like the last book in this series, The Defenceless, The Exiled is preoccupied with the refugee crisis facing Europe. (It's interesting how one's natural instinct is to phrase this as a problem for Europe - when of course the point is that it's at worst, a minor problem for Europe but a catastrophe for the unfortunates who have had to flee their homes). Hiekkapelto dissects attitudes to the refugees and shows normal people being variously heroic, inhuman or just unheeding about it all. She also rather deftly displays the workings of society in Kanisza - the local political fixer, the police, the priest, the Romani who were treated as bottom of the pile until the refugees came along. It's a far from ideal society, perhaps, but it's a place Anna understands deeply, even if she couldn't live there, and being 'home' for a while only adds to her sense of alienation.
In many ways this is then as much a book about belonging (or not) as it is a straight crime story. At times the theft/ murder plot almost vanishes to be replaced by this study in (dis)location, illustrated not only through the refugees but also in Anna herself. A recurring motif is Anna's stolen passport which of course she needs to get back to Finland at the end of her stay. She keeps forgetting to report it and collect a new one. What does that say? Yes, Anna is busy with her informal (yet still pretty sophisticated) investigation - but there seems a little more to it than that. And the local boy with whim she has a brief fling (to her mother's disapproval. Real love, lust, or - perhaps - a need for something solid in her life (despite angry words when her mother urges her to settle down).
It's difficult to say. We'll have to read more about Anna and find out.
An excellent further instalment to this series which only deepens the reader's understanding and sympathy for Anna (even though she can be a bit awkward at times...)
December 1, 2016
This is the first crime novel from Kati Hiekkapelto I have read, but The Exiled is the third in the series featuring Anna Fekete and I have become an instant fan of Kati’s writing. Normally the stories are set in Finland but with The Exiled is set in the Balkans.
Anna Fekete is visiting her mother in Serbia to the village of Anna’s birth, she is on holiday, but something happens to Anna that will change her holiday plans. Anna has her handbag stolen but the culprit who stole her handbag is found dead at the scene. It becomes clear that certain items have been taken from the handbag. Now the tense gripping drama starts to unfold. Who is the dead thief and just who is behind the robbery?
The Exiled is a deeply complex and twisting crime drama played out at a slower pace than I had expected but that is not a criticism for me this helped with the drama that was being played out. Most crime dramas are played out at a faster pace and sometimes there is a struggle to keep up but this slower paced novel really worked for me it helped me get to know the key characters and also the locations. With the refugee crisis that has engulfed central Europe over recent years this also plays a key role in the story as the wave of refugees crosses Europe and gives insight as to what they face as well as the countries and society in general this is key to part of the plot and this I found incredibly insightful. At times it can be difficult reading but this is the real world that we are living at present and cannot be ignored.
For Anna now mixed up in a robbery and also a murder she is faced with some incredibly difficult situations that will involve corruption and questions about the past. The Exiled is a terrific read and left me wanting to read Kati Hiekkapelto previous two novels in the series The Hummingbird and The Defenceless both superb tense crime thrillers from one of Finland’s most celebrated crime writers.
If you enjoy a crime drama with mystery that is both captivating and tense, then I recommend you discover Kati Hiekkapelto’s The Exiled.
Anna Fekete is visiting her mother in Serbia to the village of Anna’s birth, she is on holiday, but something happens to Anna that will change her holiday plans. Anna has her handbag stolen but the culprit who stole her handbag is found dead at the scene. It becomes clear that certain items have been taken from the handbag. Now the tense gripping drama starts to unfold. Who is the dead thief and just who is behind the robbery?
The Exiled is a deeply complex and twisting crime drama played out at a slower pace than I had expected but that is not a criticism for me this helped with the drama that was being played out. Most crime dramas are played out at a faster pace and sometimes there is a struggle to keep up but this slower paced novel really worked for me it helped me get to know the key characters and also the locations. With the refugee crisis that has engulfed central Europe over recent years this also plays a key role in the story as the wave of refugees crosses Europe and gives insight as to what they face as well as the countries and society in general this is key to part of the plot and this I found incredibly insightful. At times it can be difficult reading but this is the real world that we are living at present and cannot be ignored.
For Anna now mixed up in a robbery and also a murder she is faced with some incredibly difficult situations that will involve corruption and questions about the past. The Exiled is a terrific read and left me wanting to read Kati Hiekkapelto previous two novels in the series The Hummingbird and The Defenceless both superb tense crime thrillers from one of Finland’s most celebrated crime writers.
If you enjoy a crime drama with mystery that is both captivating and tense, then I recommend you discover Kati Hiekkapelto’s The Exiled.
December 17, 2017
In this third instalment in Kati Hiekkapelto's Anna Fekete series, which has won and been shortlisted for awards in multiple countries and languages, her Finnish detective is dragged into a case while on vacation.
Fekete has returned to her childhood home of Kanizsa, a Serbian village near the Hungarian border. Her relaxing summer break is torn asunder when her bag is snatched, only for the thief to turn up dead on the banks of the river soon after. But what happened to the little gypsy girl who'd been part of the bag snatch, with the dead man? And why are the local police so keen to say it was an accidental drowning when those facts don’t fit?
As Anna is drawn into her own investigation, she finds locals and her own family putting up roadblocks at every turn. The case begins to collide alarmingly with her own past, and the death of her policeman father many years before. Anna realises people close to her are keeping big secrets.
The Exiled is a beautifully written mystery full of intriguing characters and a superb sense of place. Furthermore, Hiekkapelto is unafraid to dig into contemporary prejudices in relation to gypsies and refugees. Topical, elegant, and chilling, The Exiled is further evidence that Hiekkapelto is a star continuing to rise.
Fekete has returned to her childhood home of Kanizsa, a Serbian village near the Hungarian border. Her relaxing summer break is torn asunder when her bag is snatched, only for the thief to turn up dead on the banks of the river soon after. But what happened to the little gypsy girl who'd been part of the bag snatch, with the dead man? And why are the local police so keen to say it was an accidental drowning when those facts don’t fit?
As Anna is drawn into her own investigation, she finds locals and her own family putting up roadblocks at every turn. The case begins to collide alarmingly with her own past, and the death of her policeman father many years before. Anna realises people close to her are keeping big secrets.
The Exiled is a beautifully written mystery full of intriguing characters and a superb sense of place. Furthermore, Hiekkapelto is unafraid to dig into contemporary prejudices in relation to gypsies and refugees. Topical, elegant, and chilling, The Exiled is further evidence that Hiekkapelto is a star continuing to rise.
April 4, 2017
Kati Hiekkapelto has used the wave of refugees to create a thrilling story with Anna Fekete, who has her purse stolen when she takes a vacation to her birthplace in the Balkan village she was born in. She is pulled into the investigation when the thief is murdered and his sister is found out. Anna makes many new friends during the process. I would recommend this book for everyone to read.
September 12, 2019
Anna dodas atvaļinājumā uz savu dzimto zemi Serbiju, kuru pārpludinājuši bēgļi, kas vēlas iekļüt ES. No atpūtas nekas nesanāk, jo profesionālisms un iekšējā sajūta liek izmeklēt slepkavību, kas beigu beigās aizved līdz tēva bojāejas patiesajiem iemesliem. Intresants sižets un arī apraksti par vietējo dzīvi, bet trūka asumiņa, kas ierasts ziemeļvalstu autoriem.
May 24, 2021
I picked this up because I needed to read a book set in the Balkans for a reading challenge. I haven't read the previous books in this series, but I thought this worked fine as a stand alone book. I really enjoyed the female police officer protagonist here--she's a solid character with internal thoughts that actually seemed realistic. I doubt I'll end up tracking down more from this series, but I wouldn't be opposed to reading another if it came across my path.
Read
December 21, 2016Having waxed lyrical about the previous book The Defenceless from edgy Finnish writer, Kati Hiekkapelto, it was great to dive into this one, again featuring Hungarian detective Anna Fekete. I am rather partial to books where the main protagonist is removed from their normal stomping ground, and how the vacations they take are never the most relaxing of affairs. The Exiled fits the bill perfectly…
Anna Fekete is a prickly and forthright woman, with a somewhat abrasive manner that exasperates and delights in equal measure. I particularly enjoyed the verbal sparring between herself and her mother, on her trip back to her parental home, and Anna’s general doggedness and interference in the gradually revealed corruption within the local police force. She proves herself a keen and formidable irritant to most people, and Heikkapelto pulls no punches in painting a vivid picture of Anna’s somewhat derisory attitude to both childhood acquaintances and local figures in the community. Finding herself inveigled in the suspicious death of a petty thief soon after her arrival, Anna uses her detective nous, and the resources open to her, calling on assistance back home in Finland, to expose a dark and bleak tale centring on the refugee community.
Through her eyes, the neglect and danger that those traversing Europe in search of a safer home experience is brought to the centre of our attention, and her generally sympathetic view to those she encounters, coloured by her own identity as a migrant, works as a powerful conduit for Hiekkapelto to provide a broad and realistic depiction of the refugee crisis. There are also additional points of interest, as the chequered history of the Balkan region is woven into the plot, and a focus on the issues of identity and belonging that have arisen from the break up of Yugoslavia are explored both through Anna’s familial history, and those she interacts with. It’s always incredibly satisfying to read a book that provides deeper levels of interest alongside the main plot, and gives a richness and texture to the prose to sate the reader. With this added scope to the book, the main plot still stands strongly within it, and the investigation that Anna undertakes to satisfy the numerous questions that arise for her is well-realised and played out, and their is an underlying current of tension throughout. As Anna finds herself increasingly at risk, but being as determined as a dog with a bone, I was totally caught up in this story from the start, and pulled in once again by the magnetism of Anna’s character, and her unerring ability to use the less attractive traits of her personality to get to the root of this mystery. Beautifully translated by David Hackston, The Exiled is another winner from Kati Hiekkappelto and I, for one, cannot wait to see what Anna gets tangled up in next. Highly recommended.
Anna Fekete is a prickly and forthright woman, with a somewhat abrasive manner that exasperates and delights in equal measure. I particularly enjoyed the verbal sparring between herself and her mother, on her trip back to her parental home, and Anna’s general doggedness and interference in the gradually revealed corruption within the local police force. She proves herself a keen and formidable irritant to most people, and Heikkapelto pulls no punches in painting a vivid picture of Anna’s somewhat derisory attitude to both childhood acquaintances and local figures in the community. Finding herself inveigled in the suspicious death of a petty thief soon after her arrival, Anna uses her detective nous, and the resources open to her, calling on assistance back home in Finland, to expose a dark and bleak tale centring on the refugee community.
Through her eyes, the neglect and danger that those traversing Europe in search of a safer home experience is brought to the centre of our attention, and her generally sympathetic view to those she encounters, coloured by her own identity as a migrant, works as a powerful conduit for Hiekkapelto to provide a broad and realistic depiction of the refugee crisis. There are also additional points of interest, as the chequered history of the Balkan region is woven into the plot, and a focus on the issues of identity and belonging that have arisen from the break up of Yugoslavia are explored both through Anna’s familial history, and those she interacts with. It’s always incredibly satisfying to read a book that provides deeper levels of interest alongside the main plot, and gives a richness and texture to the prose to sate the reader. With this added scope to the book, the main plot still stands strongly within it, and the investigation that Anna undertakes to satisfy the numerous questions that arise for her is well-realised and played out, and their is an underlying current of tension throughout. As Anna finds herself increasingly at risk, but being as determined as a dog with a bone, I was totally caught up in this story from the start, and pulled in once again by the magnetism of Anna’s character, and her unerring ability to use the less attractive traits of her personality to get to the root of this mystery. Beautifully translated by David Hackston, The Exiled is another winner from Kati Hiekkappelto and I, for one, cannot wait to see what Anna gets tangled up in next. Highly recommended.
December 11, 2016
Thriller set in Kanizsa, SERBIA.
The Exiled in the third book in the Anna Fekete series. The first two, The Hummingbird and The Defenceless, are firmly set in Finland. The Exiled is equally firmly set in Serbia.
Anna is a detective with the Finnish police force. She returns home for the summer to visit her mother in Kanizsa, a town on the Serbian-Hungarian border. Kanizsa is where she was born and brought up. One bank of the River Tisza that flows alongside the town is in Serbia, the other bank is in Hungary. Her family is part of a Hungarian speaking minority, they are not ethnic Serbian.
On her first evening home Anna is drinking at a café in town with some friends when her handbag is stolen. The thief runs off – and ends up (later) dead by the banks of the river. The local police say simply that he drowned. Anna investigates and finds that all is not as it seems… Her investigations lead her into both the local Roma community, and also into the camps of refugees fleeing across Europe and waiting to cross the border into Hungary – a far from easy task without the necessary papers. The police are of no help at all – and, indeed, seek to frustrate her activities. She is pretty certain there is a cover up, but why?
She also hears stories of her father’s death years earlier. He was allegedly shot by a Roma while investigating a mafia crime in a remote farmhouse, but the accused had an alibi which the authorities chose to ignore at the time. She wants to know what actually happened to him and who killed him – but, again (a bit like the current investigation) she is confronted by a wall of silence. Could there possibly across the years be some sort of connection between the two crimes?
The Exiled is a dramatic and well worked thriller but, as ever with Kati’s books, it carries a message of social conscience. The good people of Kanizsa look down on the Roma, who live amongst them but who have no hope of successful local employment and whose men go off begging around Europe – thus reinforcing the stereotype of them being nothing but wasters. Similarly, they despise the refugees whom they call migrants – the preferred term of the Hungarian media. They are not at all seen as fellow human beings fleeing war and destitution in their homelands. This is sadly not a story of everyone getting along together…
It is, though, an exciting and thought provoking read.
The Exiled in the third book in the Anna Fekete series. The first two, The Hummingbird and The Defenceless, are firmly set in Finland. The Exiled is equally firmly set in Serbia.
Anna is a detective with the Finnish police force. She returns home for the summer to visit her mother in Kanizsa, a town on the Serbian-Hungarian border. Kanizsa is where she was born and brought up. One bank of the River Tisza that flows alongside the town is in Serbia, the other bank is in Hungary. Her family is part of a Hungarian speaking minority, they are not ethnic Serbian.
On her first evening home Anna is drinking at a café in town with some friends when her handbag is stolen. The thief runs off – and ends up (later) dead by the banks of the river. The local police say simply that he drowned. Anna investigates and finds that all is not as it seems… Her investigations lead her into both the local Roma community, and also into the camps of refugees fleeing across Europe and waiting to cross the border into Hungary – a far from easy task without the necessary papers. The police are of no help at all – and, indeed, seek to frustrate her activities. She is pretty certain there is a cover up, but why?
She also hears stories of her father’s death years earlier. He was allegedly shot by a Roma while investigating a mafia crime in a remote farmhouse, but the accused had an alibi which the authorities chose to ignore at the time. She wants to know what actually happened to him and who killed him – but, again (a bit like the current investigation) she is confronted by a wall of silence. Could there possibly across the years be some sort of connection between the two crimes?
The Exiled is a dramatic and well worked thriller but, as ever with Kati’s books, it carries a message of social conscience. The good people of Kanizsa look down on the Roma, who live amongst them but who have no hope of successful local employment and whose men go off begging around Europe – thus reinforcing the stereotype of them being nothing but wasters. Similarly, they despise the refugees whom they call migrants – the preferred term of the Hungarian media. They are not at all seen as fellow human beings fleeing war and destitution in their homelands. This is sadly not a story of everyone getting along together…
It is, though, an exciting and thought provoking read.
December 14, 2016
Kati Hiekkapelto has brought alive a fantastic character in protagonist Anne Fekete. I love her single-minded, tunnel vision of herself - crime fighting police officer, workaholic, because if she is that person, she doesn't need to worry about a personal life and finding out who she really is. Only, in the case she finds herself embroiled when she takes a trip back 'home' she is forced to face up to some reality about her past. Full of twists and turns and a plethora of unreliable and corrupt characters it is impossible to know who is telling the truth, who is noble, who is not. I couldn't even attempt to second guess what was going to happen thus making this novel a real page turner.
Hiekkapelto has chosen a subject matter particularly prevalent at the moment to address in this novel, one of immigration. She uses a cross section of characters to voice the many, many opinions that can be heard far and wide about the issue and I felt she put down a very equal measure of a very real situation within her book. The use of well thought out imagery of the Balkans by the author helps to darken and lighten the tone of the story and with the writing as sharp as the character the plot moves along at a good steady pace. The balance of police investigation to Anna's private affairs was well proportioned and the author made me feel as if I got to know the inner workings of Anna's mind quite intimately, which helped me understand, as the reader, why she makes the decisions she does.
I particularly liked the relationship between Anna and her mother, complex and highly emotional although in an indirect why rather than direct way it helped to explain how Anna can force herself to be seemingly so emotionless towards anything or anyone other than work.
Although this is a fairly dark crime novel, it is written with a poetic feeling about it, with the descriptions about the Tisza, the mayfly hatching that makes the river blossom, the festival that all the inhabitants of the town are literally waiting for so they can celebrate. It is a bright light of hope, in a novel who's subject matter is really quite bleak.
If you enjoy a good cat and mouse hunt then you will enjoy the translated version of Kati Hiekkapelto's The Exiled.
Hiekkapelto has chosen a subject matter particularly prevalent at the moment to address in this novel, one of immigration. She uses a cross section of characters to voice the many, many opinions that can be heard far and wide about the issue and I felt she put down a very equal measure of a very real situation within her book. The use of well thought out imagery of the Balkans by the author helps to darken and lighten the tone of the story and with the writing as sharp as the character the plot moves along at a good steady pace. The balance of police investigation to Anna's private affairs was well proportioned and the author made me feel as if I got to know the inner workings of Anna's mind quite intimately, which helped me understand, as the reader, why she makes the decisions she does.
I particularly liked the relationship between Anna and her mother, complex and highly emotional although in an indirect why rather than direct way it helped to explain how Anna can force herself to be seemingly so emotionless towards anything or anyone other than work.
Although this is a fairly dark crime novel, it is written with a poetic feeling about it, with the descriptions about the Tisza, the mayfly hatching that makes the river blossom, the festival that all the inhabitants of the town are literally waiting for so they can celebrate. It is a bright light of hope, in a novel who's subject matter is really quite bleak.
If you enjoy a good cat and mouse hunt then you will enjoy the translated version of Kati Hiekkapelto's The Exiled.
November 22, 2016
The Exiled is the third book in the Anna Fekete series, but I can genuinely say that if it's read as a stand alone, it wouldn't affect your reading experience.
The story follows Anna, who is supposed to be on holiday in her home town but she gets drawn into investigating the death of the thief who stole her handbag when she thinks that it is not being looked into properly by the local police force.
I really liked Anna and I felt that this story was as much about her and her growth as the murder investigation. She really learns more about herself as the case brings up things that are hard for her to think or talk about. She also grows in her relationships with both her friends and her family which is really good to see. I also thought that the other characters were extremely well written and each had their own personality.
The story itself was really well written and was really interesting, I didn't want to put the book down as I needed to know what happened. I really was kept guessing until the end to figure out who did what and why!
There are a lot of quite important and relevant topics covered in this book too, mainly about refugees and people trafficking. The book covers how countries and the public see these people coming through where they live, with extremely differing views. It's definitely very brave to touch upon these subjects, but I think that they have been covered very well by the author.
I also have to mention the translation for this book to me seems really good. Reading it, you can't tell that it wasn't originally written in English. The only give aways are the use of Finnish here and there.
Overall an excellent book and one I have already recommended to people. I will also be looking forward to more books by Kati Hiekkapelto.
This review was originally posted on my blog http://lifeofanerdishmum.blogspot.co.uk/
The story follows Anna, who is supposed to be on holiday in her home town but she gets drawn into investigating the death of the thief who stole her handbag when she thinks that it is not being looked into properly by the local police force.
I really liked Anna and I felt that this story was as much about her and her growth as the murder investigation. She really learns more about herself as the case brings up things that are hard for her to think or talk about. She also grows in her relationships with both her friends and her family which is really good to see. I also thought that the other characters were extremely well written and each had their own personality.
The story itself was really well written and was really interesting, I didn't want to put the book down as I needed to know what happened. I really was kept guessing until the end to figure out who did what and why!
There are a lot of quite important and relevant topics covered in this book too, mainly about refugees and people trafficking. The book covers how countries and the public see these people coming through where they live, with extremely differing views. It's definitely very brave to touch upon these subjects, but I think that they have been covered very well by the author.
I also have to mention the translation for this book to me seems really good. Reading it, you can't tell that it wasn't originally written in English. The only give aways are the use of Finnish here and there.
Overall an excellent book and one I have already recommended to people. I will also be looking forward to more books by Kati Hiekkapelto.
This review was originally posted on my blog http://lifeofanerdishmum.blogspot.co.uk/
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews