The Day of the Lie

At the request of an old friend, an English Gilbertine monk (and former lawyer) goes to Warsaw to help prepare a murder case against a Polish Communist secret police officer. He finds that the only witness, a woman arrested in 1951 and 1982 by the monster, was silenced when he told her who had informed on her the last time. She will talk only if the informer will be willing to have his or her identity revealed. She will not tell anyone who this person is.
At least that is the opening premise. Brodrick’s plot has several twists and turns, all of them believable. He is a good mystery writer and his Brother Anselm is a good detective. I will not remember this novel for its mystery. I will remember it for what I learned about a people put show more through several hells during a half century and how very different individuals reacted to it. Brodrick’s novels were described as “moral thrillers” in the blurbs and reviews I read before I bought it. Brother Anselm must think hard about good and evil during his investigation, in part to figure out responsibility and motive, in part to help as a Christian, said help offered even to the monster. I don’t think I’ve read a mystery before where previous readers and I felt a need to highlight words of insight thrown out by either Anselm or his prior. I do think that Brodrick overdid it, that he fell in love with his insights, that his book would have been better if it was maybe 5% shorter. But this was a worthwhile read. show less

"A literary thriller" is the description attached to this book by one of its reviewers. Like some other readers I struggled to get fully involved in this book, partly because of the style of Brodrick's complex prose, and partly because of the plot's complexity. This is a "who-done-it" but not in the traditional sense; it is a slow delayering of an onion, each layer bring removed adds another level of complexity. From the title you can correctly deduce that it is really about the nature of truth, but also about justice and retribution. This is well worth persisting with; rewards await the patient. (By the way this is really a 7.1 out of them book; 4/5 is too generous but 3/5 a bit mean)