Liar Moon

January 9, 2012
Set in German-occupied Italy in the fall of 1943, Pastor’s second novel featuring Wehrmacht Maj. Martin Bora (after 2011’s Lumen) finds Bora assigned by German headquarters in Verona to assist Italian Centurion Gaetano De Rosa in investigating the murder of a Fascist party notable, Vittorio Lisi. The death has been spun as resulting from natural causes in keeping with the facade that no one commits murder or suicide in Mussolini’s Italy. In fact, the wheelchair-bound Lisi was struck by a car, and since his wife Clara’s vehicle has a dent in its front fender, she’s an obvious suspect. Lisi’s dying message—scrawling the letter C in the gravel—also points to his widow, but Bora must consider others with motive for the killing, including political adversaries. Pastor succeeds at painting a memorable picture of Fascist Italy through the lens of ordinary police procedure carried out under extraordinary circumstances. Agent: Meryl Zegarek, Meryl Zegarek PR.

February 15, 2012
The second in Pastor's series (but first to be published in the U.S.) starring Nazi major Martin von Bora, whom the Wehrmacht assigns to investigate crimes that are potentially embarrassing to the cause, finds Bora assigned to Verona, where a highly placed Italian Fascist has been murdered. Bora is in constant pain from a grenade attack that has left an arm and knee shattered, and Pastor's vivid descriptions of the major's efforts to hold himself together with dignity help make this Nazi functionary sympathetic. That and Bora's constant guilt over sending truckloads of prisoners to their deaths in Russia. Part of the challenge of this book comes from wondering whether Pastor has gone too far, or not far enough, in making his Nazi protagonist a likable series lead. The German officer is paired with an Italian police inspector who both admires and is appalled by Bora's stoicism. The tone of the book has a flu-like grimness, appropriate to the 1943 setting. Pastor is excellent at providing details (silk stockings, movie magazines, cigarettes) that light up the setting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)