Book Review: “Testimony,” by Scott Turow

The gruesome brutality of the Bosnian war of the 1990s is the backdrop for Scott Turow’s legal thriller, Testimony. The question of accountability and justice for the atrocities of the war is central to the story.

The Bosnian war took place between 1992 and 1995. More than 100,000 were killed during ethnic cleansing campaigns waged among the forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plot centers on allegations of a horrible crime years later in 2004 in which 400 Roma (gypsies) were allegedly rounded up from a village and buried alive in an abandoned mine. Investigating this crime is Bill ten Boom, a former U.S. Attorney from Turow’s fictional Kindle County. Boom is in the throes of a midlife crisis. After his marriage falls apart, he decides to leave a lucrative law practice, but he has no idea what he wants to do with the rest of his life. At the urging of an old friend who is a CIA operative, Boom take a job as a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

His task is to investigate the disappearance of the Roma. Suspects abound, but the lone eyewitness fingers a fugitive Serbian leader, Laza Kajevic, modeled after Radovan Karadzic. There is also speculation that U.S. forces acting as peacekeepers for NATO, may have orchestrated the crime as revenge for a failed raid on Kajevic’s hideout in which the Roma may have tipped off the fugitive leader.

Aiding Boom in his investigation is the seductive and mysterious Esma Czarni, an advocate for the Roma, who has unearthed the single witness to the crime. Moral ambiguities dominate this story, from a disgraced US General’s evasiveness under questioning by Boom, to Boom’s own lurid affair with Czarni.

Turow captures the complexities behind the multiple conflicts in the war, which triggered centuries old hatreds among ethnic and religious factions. The various layers and motivations of the players in this carnage defy easy answers. To Turow’s credit, he doesn’t attempt to foist high minded moral judgments on the reader. There are no heroes in this story, as even the American peacekeepers come under scrutiny for diverting confiscated weapons to Iraq. The whereabouts of those weapons and how they were used remains a mystery.

What is clear is that Turow values the spirit behind the ICC and the ideal that the rule of law must apply, even in times of war, which force decent people to commit unspeakable crimes.

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Book Review: Almost Missed You, by Jessica Strawser

Did you ever wonder about the one who got away? Maybe it was a chance meeting and an instant attraction occurred. Something happened and you didn’t get her name. Then, years later, you got a second chance. It was fate, right? It was meant to be. Or, perhaps not.

Jessica Strawser’s debut novel, Almost Missed You, poses these questions. Violet, the protagonist, meets Finn by chance on a beach on Sunny Isle, Florida. They learn they’re both from Cincinnati and both attended the same summer camp. Before she gets his name a medical emergency intervenes. That’s it. No name. No phone number.

Through the magic of the internet, they do eventually reunite, fall in love, and have a baby, but Finn is not the person he appears to be on the surface. When they return to Sunny Isle with their toddler son, Bear, Violet is enjoying the beach while Finn is putting down Bear for a nap. When Violet gets back to their hotel room, she discovers to her horror that Finn has left with their son. Finn has kidnapped their son and the FBI launches an investigation.

Strawser, who is the editorial director of Writer’s Digest, skillfully portrays the desperation Violet feels as she lives a parent’s worst nightmare. Moving back and forth in time, Strawser peels off the layers of the mystery to reveal a tragedy in Finn’s past. Caught in the middle is their close friend, Caitlin Bryce-Daniels. It turns out Finn’s secrets could ruin the political ambitions of Caitlin’s husband, who hails from a powerful family. The biggest secret is the one Finn is hiding from Violet. I won’t reveal it, but it’s a whopper.

The story raises questions about how much people really know about their spouse and whether there is such a thing as fate. And, it leaves the reader wondering about how the idea of love can cloud a person’s judgment and cause her to miss warning signs.