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A review by martyfried
Death On Duty by Graham Brack
5.0
I've been reading this series in order, and enjoyed the first two a lot, but I think I liked this one even more. It may be just a matter of getting to know the main characters, but after reading this one, I'm surprised this series is not more popular. But maybe it's just that it fits my tastes so well - biting humor, likable characters, good stories. Or maybe it's his penchant for beer and sausages, both of which I wish I could enjoy more often, without becoming an over-pressurized blimp.
In fact this one starts off with a gift for Josef Slonský's birthday - a ticket to a sausage-making competition which is made even better by his being chosen as a judge. He's in heaven, except perhaps when he gets one bound together with egg, which in his view made it a type of omelette. He thinks the poor guy would have been hanged on his own meat hook by one retired butcher, but they had tempered justice with mercy on the grounds that the evildoer was half-Hungarian and therefore could not be expected to know better.
As for his beer consumption, he considers anyone who drinks less than 2 liters in a day to be a teetotaller.
The crimes in the story are pretty serious, though. A policeman is murdered in broad daylight without anyone around realizing it. And young women are being illegally brought into the country and forced to do things they did not plan on doing. Escape is not really possible, and attempts are severely punished. Many of the bad guys are known, but much of the work is finding proof that will stand up in court.
In fact this one starts off with a gift for Josef Slonský's birthday - a ticket to a sausage-making competition which is made even better by his being chosen as a judge. He's in heaven, except perhaps when he gets one bound together with egg, which in his view made it a type of omelette. He thinks the poor guy would have been hanged on his own meat hook by one retired butcher, but they had tempered justice with mercy on the grounds that the evildoer was half-Hungarian and therefore could not be expected to know better.
As for his beer consumption, he considers anyone who drinks less than 2 liters in a day to be a teetotaller.
The crimes in the story are pretty serious, though. A policeman is murdered in broad daylight without anyone around realizing it. And young women are being illegally brought into the country and forced to do things they did not plan on doing. Escape is not really possible, and attempts are severely punished. Many of the bad guys are known, but much of the work is finding proof that will stand up in court.