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A review by markhoh
A Spring Betrayal by Tom Callaghan
5.0
Kyrgyzstan... landlocked former Central Asian Soviet socialist republic... mountainous, majestic, mysterious, chaotic, corrupt, crazy. Kyrgyzstan is, in my opinion, the main and outstanding character in Tom Callaghan’s ‘A Spring Betrayal’, second instalment of the Inspector Akyl Borubaev series.
Following on from the first book in the series, ‘A Winter Killing’, ‘A Spring Betrayal’ witnesses Inspector Borubaev of the Bishkek Murder Squad exiled to the far flung eastern region of the country, taking a policing post in a remote location after the events of the previous book. Stumbling on a gruesome discovery of a shallow grave of seven orphaned children in the remote north east, Borubaev is set on another relentless chase to uncover the most hideous criminals, responsible for unspeakable acts of terror on children and to clear his own name after being framed as a perpetrator.
Tom Callaghan has written a series that ticks all the boxes for me. I love nothing more than a strong setting that drives me to find out as much as I can about the land and the people, diving into atlases, various internet sites and other books. As a parallel read, I picked up Erika Fatland’s Sovietistan, commencing on the chapter on Kyrgyzstan to read about this fascinating and incredibly rich part of the world.
As she records in Sovietistan about Kyrgyzstan, “Our society is extremely aggressive,” Banur says. “For all its generosity and warmth, Kyrgyz society is hard. It doesn’t take much for people to flee up and shout and scream at each other, or to start a fight”. This statement pretty much sums up the Kyrgyzstan that Callaghan introduces us to in ‘A Spring Betrayal’.
I also love a damaged detective, where I am privileged to get inside his thoughts, motives, past, behaviours, influences and personality. Akyl Borubaev is exactly that character, continuing to process his wife’s untimely death, racked by cancer. Callaghan allows us to understand more and more of the circumstances around this and the way that Borubaev processes this - in a way that is authentic for the man he is, not cliche or trite.
We also glimpse something of his childhood too, the period that he was left in a children’s home, abandoned and forgotten for a period and the impact that has had on who he is as an adult male. A Spring Betrayal is a book with multiple layers. The ending is neither complete nor wanting. Betrayal is a multilayered notion and as the last few words of the book indicate...
“We create rules to live by, to tell us how to act, to help us sleep at night. And when life shreds them into fragments thrown into the wind, all we can do is carry on. But there’s always a price, because betrayal comes in many disguises. First, we betray our friends. Then we betray those who love us. And finally, inevitably, we betray ourselves. Maybe it’s love that redeems us. Or when we do what we know what’s right, whatever the consequences.”
I’m going to give this one 5 stars.
Following on from the first book in the series, ‘A Winter Killing’, ‘A Spring Betrayal’ witnesses Inspector Borubaev of the Bishkek Murder Squad exiled to the far flung eastern region of the country, taking a policing post in a remote location after the events of the previous book. Stumbling on a gruesome discovery of a shallow grave of seven orphaned children in the remote north east, Borubaev is set on another relentless chase to uncover the most hideous criminals, responsible for unspeakable acts of terror on children and to clear his own name after being framed as a perpetrator.
Tom Callaghan has written a series that ticks all the boxes for me. I love nothing more than a strong setting that drives me to find out as much as I can about the land and the people, diving into atlases, various internet sites and other books. As a parallel read, I picked up Erika Fatland’s Sovietistan, commencing on the chapter on Kyrgyzstan to read about this fascinating and incredibly rich part of the world.
As she records in Sovietistan about Kyrgyzstan, “Our society is extremely aggressive,” Banur says. “For all its generosity and warmth, Kyrgyz society is hard. It doesn’t take much for people to flee up and shout and scream at each other, or to start a fight”. This statement pretty much sums up the Kyrgyzstan that Callaghan introduces us to in ‘A Spring Betrayal’.
I also love a damaged detective, where I am privileged to get inside his thoughts, motives, past, behaviours, influences and personality. Akyl Borubaev is exactly that character, continuing to process his wife’s untimely death, racked by cancer. Callaghan allows us to understand more and more of the circumstances around this and the way that Borubaev processes this - in a way that is authentic for the man he is, not cliche or trite.
We also glimpse something of his childhood too, the period that he was left in a children’s home, abandoned and forgotten for a period and the impact that has had on who he is as an adult male. A Spring Betrayal is a book with multiple layers. The ending is neither complete nor wanting. Betrayal is a multilayered notion and as the last few words of the book indicate...
“We create rules to live by, to tell us how to act, to help us sleep at night. And when life shreds them into fragments thrown into the wind, all we can do is carry on. But there’s always a price, because betrayal comes in many disguises. First, we betray our friends. Then we betray those who love us. And finally, inevitably, we betray ourselves. Maybe it’s love that redeems us. Or when we do what we know what’s right, whatever the consequences.”
I’m going to give this one 5 stars.