Deadly Autumn Harvest | Tony Mott

Forensic pathologist, Dr Regina Alexa, may not have the best track record when it comes to romantic relationships, but her aptitude for behavioural profiling makes her an essential member of Braşov’s recently established Police Unit for Behavioural Analysis. Gigi gets the job done, even if she needs to crack a few eggs to make the omelette.

Recently, Braşov’s police force has made headlines for their ineptitude after mishandling a crucial case. When an actress, Andrada Vasiliu, is murdered Chief Inspector Matei Valean knows they need to use all available resources to avoid being in the line of fire again. This includes enlisting the help of Gigi, whom he feels protective of. Matei’s girlfriend, Alina, who also works for the police, has mixed feelings about the idea. There’s also the matter of the uncanny resemblance between Gigi and the murder victim. They both have the same “curly blonde mane”. Was it a coincidence, or was the murderer trying to send a message?

Gigi is interested in psychology and victimology and hopes to pursue a PhD in the field in the Netherlands. Dr Lemnaru, the controversial, recently appointed director of County Service for Forensic Medicine, disagrees, claiming that it would be a waste of time given how rarely such specialised knowledge is needed in the cases she works with the police. Fortunately for her (less so for the victims), Andrada’s murder is only the first of what appears to be a serial killer’s doing.

When Irina Opera, a hairdresser and salon owner, is murdered it’s clear to Gigi that the murders are linked, even though the police aren’t convinced. Yet, Gigi and her colleagues are unable to find a motivation for murders or a connection between the victims. Furthermore, the killer’s modus operandi varies, whether it’s the way he arranges their bodies or his murder weapon of choice. Were the victims chosen because of what they represented to the killer, or did he have a personal relationship with them? As the bodies pile up, Gigi and the police are no closer to tracking down the killer.

Also summoned to assist with the investigation is Vlad Tomescu, the Chief of Police based in Bucharest and the married man Gigi had an affair with. Their breakup was not amicable; in fact, when she attempted to end it, he stalked her and she feared for her life. The experience left her emotionally scarred, but now Vlad’s back and wants to pick up where they left off. Gigi has a persistent feeling that someone is watching her, but she brushes it off as unfounded paranoia brought on by Vlad’s intrusive presence. We feel Gigi’s anxiety and unease.

After her traumatic experience with Vlad Gigi rushed into a relationship with Radu, something she now regrets. She finds him to be smothering, and he believes she is incapable of dealing with her emotions. But Gigi aware of her flaws. She briefly wonders if she might be a psychopath herself because it seems either she “misses some basic human feelings or they were just severely delayed”. However, when faced with other people’s emotions, particularly the families of victims, she feels empathy. Death is an inevitable part of her life, but she observes that most people had “that brief moment of being confronted with the transcience of life, but they generally tried to avoid dealing with the fact that humans were in fact such a fragile species”.

Deadly Autumn Harvest has two fascinating drawing cards: Gigi and Braşov. Tony Mott transports us to Romania and this picturesque tourist city, creating an atmospheric and convincing sense of place. But Gigi outshines even the city. How could we not warm to this tough, yet vulnerable woman, who often feels like an outsider in a relentlessly, male-dominated environment while also dealing her own emotional baggage?

The good news is that Deadly Autumn Harvest is one of a quartet, and if Marina Sofia provides us with yet another flawless translation, we may get to spend some more time with Gigi.

About the author:

Tony Mott was born and bred in Braşov, which often forms the backdrop for her novels. She has worked internationally as a coach and HR professional, but her real passion remains writing. In 2022 she received the Romanian Mystery & Thriller Award. Deadly Autumn Harvest is the first novel in the Gigi Alexa series to be translated into English.

About the translator:

Marina Sofia is a translator, reviewer, writer and blogger, as well as a third culture kid who grew up trilingual in Romanian, German and English. Her previous translations for Corylus Books are Sword by Bogdan Teodorescu and Resilience by Bogdan Hrib. She has spent most of her winters in Braşov skiing, so is delighted to translate a book set in her favourite Romanian town.

Deadly Autumn Harvest is published by Corylus Books and the Deadly Autumn Harvest blogtour was organised by Ewa Sherman. The tour runs until the end of August, so do follow along for other reviewers’ insights.

Resilience | Bogdan Hrib

Ana Coman, the daughter of shady Romanian businessman Pavel Coman, is found dead on a beach in South Shields, England. The police claims it’s suicide, but Coman is adamant that foul play was involved and wants Stelian Munteau to investigate.

For most of us this is the first introduction to Stelian Munteau, the part investigator, part journalist and part fixer. Fortunately, five novels with the reluctant Munteau preceded Resilience: The Greek Chain, The Curse of the Manuscript, Somalia, Mon Amour, Kill the General and The Passions of the Minister. Unfortunately, they haven’t all been translated into English, but if Resilience is anything to go by, it won’t be long before they all are.

On the upside Munteau had time to mature and develop like a good red wine. By now he knows what he wants from life. He’s no longer a state employee and only has to answer to his wife, Sofia, who lives in London. Over the years his work has led him to travel the world on assignment, among others to Somalia where he met Sofia. But the couple’s long-distance relationship is taking strain. They are living in two different countries and Munteau has no idea what his wife’s job is, only that she works for a mysterious international corporation with its head office in London. That seemed to be enough for him – until a link between Sofia and the murdered Ana Coman is found. Sofia knew Ana, but never told her husband. Could this mean that Sofia’s life is also in danger?

Munteau reluctantly agrees to poke around and find out more about Ana’s death – mostly it’s an excuse to travel to the UK and visit his wife. Considering Ana’s work at the Romanian Consulate the logical assumption is that her death might be politically motivated, but she had a fairly junior project manager position at the Cultural Institute and posed no risk. Her father, on the other hand, had plenty of dubious deals going on the sly, which could easily be motivation for a revenge killing.

Before Munteau has an opportunity to properly grab the bull by its horns, another murder takes place and his unfortunate close proximity to the victim’s house at the time of the murder makes him one of the main suspects. The case becomes personal when Sofia is shot at while at a traffic light in Regent Street. Monica, a colleague of Ana’s is also hurt in a shooting. Both women are unscathed; their attacks appear to be a warning rather than an attempt at their lives.

Tony Demetriade, an old friend of Munteau and policeman, is drawn into the investigation with Anabella Păduraru, Tony’s young assistant and love interest. Whizzing to-and-fro between London, Newcastle, Bucharest and Iași the trio attempt to unravel the motivation behind the attacks and find that a much larger political motivation lies at its core. What emerges is an intricate web of connections which Hrib cleverly constructs piece by piece throughout the novel without revealing anything to the reader.

Resilience brims with complex characters who are either clearly the enemy, such as Kamil Kostov, an overly ambitious, aspiring Polish politician who contracts a social influencer to instigate social and political unrest, or those who defy definition. Peter Burnston, a journalist with an interest in the Balkans, who constantly pops up wherever Munteau is, falls in the last category. Similarly indefinable is Pavel Coman’s right-hand man Jack King, a real thug, half-Greek, half-Roma, sent to help Stelian. Also noteworthy is DCI Harriet Darlow, a British police inspector who collaborates with the Romanian police and who looks “… like a younger version of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.” There’s no shortage of characters as plot decoys here. Still, the reader is never left in the dark unnecessarily.

Together with an intriguing plot and interesting characters Resilience has a strong geopolitical element and how could it not with Romania as one of its settings? The term resilience within the political sphere is defined as “a new form of governance that endorsed the impossibility of predicting threats“. In Romania this isn’t possible as it’s still too traditional in its way of government, not able to reform and adapt when faced with a crisis.

The stereotypical occurrence of corruption in the Balkans is mentioned but also explained as the only way for survival. And as we see across the world, where there’s corruption, especially on a government level, it’s easier for propaganda to fall on vulnerable ears. Commentary on the appalling power of social media, influencers and fake news is still extremely relevant and a stark reminder of the gullibility of people if they never venture outside their echo chambers or question what they are fed by the internet.

Hrib also subtly infuses his story with historical detail, but he does it with a light touch and with a soft voice. In the process the reader’s interest is piqued about, for example, the 1989 revolution. Instead of inundating readers with facts, he plants the seed.

Resilience finely balances plot, characters and geopolitics to create a gripping, fresh crime thriller with a charming main character we’d love to see more of. Marina Sofia’s seamless translation no doubt plays a crucial part in the end-result – a highly entertaining, accessible and engaging read.

About the author

Bogdan Hrib was born in Bucharest, Romania. He’s a former journalist, civil engineer by training and now professor at a Bucharest university. Hrib is the co-founder of Tritonic Books and has been instrumental in bringing foreign crime writers to a Romanian audience, but also introducing Romanian crime writers to the English-speaking world. He is the author of the crime fiction series featuring Stelian Munteanu, a book-editor with a sideline doing international police work. Kill the General (2011), the fourth book in the Munteanu series was Hrib’s first novel translated into English, won the Special Award of the Bucharest Writers Association (2012).
Resilience, the sixth of the series, was published in May 2020, by Tritonic.

About the translator

Marina Sofia is a translator, reviewer, writer and blogger born in Romania, but she has lived in the UK for half of her life. Marina has worked in marketing, editorial or event management roles for Asymptote literary journal, Geneva Writers’ Group, dVerse Poets and Royal Borough Writers, and was a reviewer for Crime Fiction Lover for more than seven years. Resilience is her second translation from Romanian, the first being Bogdan Teodorescu’s Sword.

Resilience is published by Corylus Books. Thank you to Ewa and Corylus for inviting me to take part in the blog tour and providing me with a review copy. See below for the full details of the blog tour and an array of book lovers’ reviews of Resilience.