ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Despite the enormous popularity of crime novels and thrillers, I don’t, in general, like reading them and especially not those with gory bodies and serial killers.  I think that the popularity of such books feeds into the obsession with crime in our media, and into law and order campaigns in our politics.  Truth be told, I bought Bogdan Teodorescu’s novel Sword, serial killer and all, because it was translated by Marina Sofia who I count among my bookish virtual friends. I had no intention of reading it, I just wanted to support her publishing venture Corylus Books.

But, browsing my shelves for translations to read during #WITmonth, I came across Sword and (#SmacksForehead completely forgetting that Teodorescu is a notable Romanian author and not Czech at all) I made a mental note of it for Stu’s upcoming Czech Lit month, and began reading it one day when marooned in a waiting room.

And discovered that while Sword certainly does feature a serial killer, the novel is actually a cautionary tale about cynicism in politics and the media, and an exposé of systematic prejudice against the Roma, a significant minority in Romania.  (About 8%, according to Wikipedia).

As one body after another emerges, it becomes clear that the victims are all Roma.  Though they come from the underbelly of society, it is their identity as Roma that unites them, and it is their identity as Roma that emerges as a political issue during the investigation.  Memories of Nazi efforts to exterminate the Roma surface in the reader’s mind: as with the Holocaust, the attempted genocide of the Roma in Axis-allied Romania took place with tacit and sometimes overt support from the populace though this was achieved through deportations rather than systematic annihilation.  So the dismissive attitude and suspicion towards these victims appears to have its origins in longstanding prejudice in Romania.

As elsewhere in the world, the presence of a serial killer invokes media hysteria and political grandstanding as if either of these would contribute to finding the perpetrator.  (The same thing happens here during outbursts of gangland internecine murders). Gotcha journalists are out to capitalise on the fear, and politicians don’t want to be seen as having any sympathy with gangsters but need to sound firm and purposeful about restoring law and order.  In Sword, the victims include small fry like Nehu the Fly working for Slit; the very rich man nicknamed The Bulgarian who knew the right people in government, had paid off the police right up to the highest levels and had a really comfortable lifestyle; and the nameless man working with girls brought over from Moldova and Ukraine.

Then there’s a fourth whose murder comes to the attention of the president just about to set off for some important international negotiations, which will help him claim the title of ‘Leader of the Balkans’.  So his Minister comes under pressure too.

The Secret Services files that the Minister glanced through that morning revealed that all four victims had criminal records and each had been in prison at least once in their lives. So that might make one think that the killer either knew somebody in the police force, or was an ex-copper or – heaven forbid! – still was a policeman. The files indicated that this was not only a serial killer, but clearly a vigilante. Given the deterioration of the relationship between the Romanian majority and a small proportion of the Roma community, this type of vigilante justice might be welcomed by a large section of the general population. Furthermore, the files warned that well-armed mafia gangs might be ready and willing to take revenge. The appendix contained a list of the most violent gypsy mafia families.

The Minister of the Interior did not have a lot of people he could trust in the senior police ranks. He considered them generally corrupt and inefficient. So he asked for the help of an army general and the head of the Intelligence Services. He met them at his official residence in Snagov. He also invited the Commander of the General Directorate of the Bucharest Police to the meeting, the only policeman he could bear.

‘Sir, you have to be mindful this is dangerous territory. Public opinion…’ ventured intelligence head Stoicescu. ‘Yes, I get it, I read the Secret Service files. But I’ve got far more than public opinion to worry about. This is a pre-election year. The EU will be checking up on us in autumn again.’ (pp. 15-16)

So it’s not a moral imperative to deal with this vendetta, it’s compliance with European Union standards,

This murder also brings back from holidays Iliescu, the vice president of the Romanian Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights (who is, ironically, a closet homosexual in what is predominantly an Orthodox Christian country).  He understands the EU imperative too:

After all that had happened in Bosnia and Kosovo, no one in Europe would tolerate such excesses against any minority. (p. 12).

And then there’s a fifth victim, a gangland boss whose minder Cudgel fails to protect him but the modus operandi is different.

Iliescu responds to tabloid hysteria with this response:

‘The only thing this ethnic group is guilty of is that they are a minority in a country where the majority are against their very existence. This majority is determined to get rid of them to the sound of overwhelming applause. Other minorities would do well to not stand by passively and to remember that it might be them next.’ (p. 13).

And gets into trouble for being incendiary…

The murders continue. The Opposition is delighted because they expect to win government.  (Important social issues are off the agenda in the parliament.) There are a lot of deaths, including a child and a policeman, which brings admiration for Turkish ‘strongman’ leadership and popular support for replacing democracy with a military regime.

The novel is written as a chronological narrative, with parallel articles by the tabloid journalist Marius Ionescu.  He responds to political pressure by stating the obvious i.e. that the paper won’t sell if it praises the government (as newspapers used to do in Soviet times).  The dialogue is crisp and often wry, and it’s not necessary to know much about Romanian society and politics to make sense of it.  Sword hasn’t converted me to an appreciation of crime fiction, but it was enjoyable reading all the same.

You can read more about the author in this profile at the publisher’s website. 

Author: Bogdan Teodorescu
Title: Sword (Spada)
Publisher: Corylus Books, 2020
ASN: B0872C8LFY, Kindle edition, 272 pages
Source: purchased for the Kindle from You Know Who. $6.12AUD, also available direct from Corylus Books.