Brides of Blood

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In the wake of a young woman's savage murder, Iranian detective Darius Bakhtiar struggles with the local unwritten code of justice under the disapproving gaze of the Imam while trying to discover the truth. Reprint. NYT. K. From Publishers WeeklyIn transposing to an Iranian setting the conventions of the thriller--the hard-drinking detective, the threatened heroine, the frantic escape from a brutal adversary--Koenig invests his story with unusual resonance. Here the familiar figure of the honest cop plays his role in the unfamiliar milieu of Teheran's fundamentalist Islamic society, as he becomes a threat to the government itself. Conducting a routine murder investigation to solve the death of a sexually mutilated young woman, chief homicide detective Darius Bakhtiar discovers the existence of a state-sponsored terrorist group, the Brides of Blood. This secret sorority of virgins, fanatical in their religious devotion, are trained to martyr themselves in terrorist aggression. After Bakhtiar uncovers evidence of sanctioned efforts to arm Iran with biological weapons, he and Maryam Lejavardi, the beautiful former Bride he has begun to protect and love, are tortured in Iran's feared Evin prison. The unimaginable horrors of Iran's torture factory might have overwhelmed a lesser novelist, but Koenig artfully blends assiduous research and superbly maintained suspense as he builds to the thrilling, unrelenting--and very cinematic--final pages. This is a sophisticated evocation of another society and culture; an exotic background made palpably sinister through proven thriller techniques. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalDarius Bakhtiar, American-educated chief of homicide in Teheran, battles an unrelievedly savage array of enemies as he investigates the murder of a young woman and is then drawn into the hunt for a deadly poison. He must also cope with the loss of his Iranian wife, who has rejected him in order to devote herself fanatically to her religion. Koenig presents a bleak portrait of today's Iran, where "brides of blood," or female vigilantes, uphold impossible moral standards and where women are routinely mutilated and killed, often by other women. His protagonist undergoes numerous trials and tortures, is banished from the job he has performed well, and finds himself running for his life. As a suspense novel, the book suffers from a surfeit of political and religious detail. As a description of a modern Middle Eastern city, it turns the stomach. It's difficult to define the appropriate readership for this book by the author of Smuggler's Notch (Ballantine, 1991) and Floater (1989).- Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Company, Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.