Alibi: A Novel

I really liked the opening sequences, set in Venice right after WWII but I hated the middle chapters, finding them tedious. (A bozo guy commits a murder, and then seeks to help an extremely crafty detective solve it. Actually, he was seeking to "unsolve" the murder, but still?)However, I absolutely loved the last sections and in particular the ending. Seldom is a crime novel brought to a conclusion as completely and as satisfyingly as was this one. The ending was brilliant and featured no loose ends or characters left hanging while you wonder what became of them.The story itself was all about compromising your values, your ethics, and in the end, your morality. Everyone in the story faced these decisions on some level. Inspector Cavallini was an inspired character; extremely smooth and polished, crafty and clever, ruthless and brutal, and driven by his own agenda. As we go along, we see that he does not solve crimes as much as he cleans up the aftermath. He had thrived in pre-war Italy and in Fascist WWII Italy. Clearly he was now in firm control of his fate in post-war Italy.I would love to see where these fictional people were ten and twenty years later, since the ending of this novel seemed to be a jumping-off point for new lives in far off lands for several of the characters. It was maddening to see the various players acting as if they were now friends when (although unspoken) everyone seemed to have learned some very dark secrets about each of the others ... and Cavallini was no one to be trusting with your dark secrets.

Unlike other books by the author (Prodigal Spy, Good German) this novel is more of a thriller and has less of the espionage feel. The story moves briskly to begin with but starts to lull after the main plot point. The book is set in the near aftermath of the Second World War and has a tangential connection to the War but not nearly as closely tied as other Kanon stories. All in all the book is an enjoyable read but if you are looking for a novel dealing with WWII/Cold War espionage in the vein of Alan Furst, this isn't the book for you. If, instead, you are in the mood for a period piece thriller, look no further.

Post-war Venice is a city that has survived the war almost intact.Adam, an American soldier, has been hunting nazis, and comes to Venice at the urging of his mother, who has returned to resume her pre-war life, that of a wealthy socialite. But she is attracted to an Italian doctor who has perhaps been helping the Germans during the war. Thus Adam sets out to prevent what he sees as his mother's potential marital mistake.Meanwhile, Adam meets and falls for a young Jewish woman who claims this same doctor killed her father during the war by sending him off to a concentration camp.These complicated relationships lead to a disastrous confrontation, a murder, and the consequent investigation by the Venetian police. Mix in the war-time partisans, and Kanon's plot becomes a real winner.The writing is excellent, precise and powerful. Kanon has a very direct style, not wasting time or words on superfluous descriptions. Yet we feel very intensely the mood of of the city, the dampness of the canals, the stones and bricks, the divergent areas of the city, the contrast between a deserted ghetto and St. Mark's Square. It is far from a travelogue, but as the story unfolds we feel we are there, in Venice.A minor concern for me is the striking similarity between the plots of 'Alibi' and 'Istanbul Passage'. (See separate review.) But both are excellent novels and are highly recommended.

Venice in the immediate post-WW II era; political unrest as Italy sorts out the good guys from the Communists and the collaborationists; a love scenario between a native Venetian and an American widow (which one has the money?); the widow's son, fresh from army duty in Germany, where he sorted out which people were the active Nazis and which simply went along because they had no choice. Venice sinking into the sea, but trying to pretend that the war never happened and hoping the glitterati can take up just where they left off in 1939.What a wonderfully volatile mixture, filled with possibilities for misunderstandings and murder. The two protagonists - Adam Miller, the soldier son; and Cladia, Adam's lover and an Italian survivor of the Jewish exodus during the latter stages of the war - are very different people. They face excruciating moral and practical dilemmas as the plot unfolds, thus providing the basis for one of the most tension-provoking reads I've recently encountered.Although "Alibi" has a few scenes of violence, the scary parts are much more subtle, involving cat-and-mouse games with the police, the family, and those who either want to forget the indiscretions of the war period or want to make sure that every wrong is punished.I'm a Joseph Kanon fan and have thoroughly enjoyed some of his other books such as "Los Alamos" and "The Good German." So I was ecstatic to find "Ailbi," and was definitely not disappointed.

Good story and very well told. Suspenseful throughout. There is a historical background against which the story is laid out regarding the Venitian Jewish Ghetto and the role the Nazis played in transporting almost all of the Venetian Jews living in the Ghetto to their deaths in the concentration camps. The writer gives detailed accounts of every step his characters take as they traverse the city of Venice. As my husband and I have spent many weeks/months in Venice over the years we know the city well. It was a pleasure moving through the calle (streets) with his protagonist who more often then not took the route we would have taken to get from one place to another! Although the Ghetto and the Nazi treatment of Venetian Jews is a piece of this story, the story is centered more on individual characters interacting with one another creating a mysterious scenario. We know who did it....will anyone else find out?

Wir werden Zeugen eines -unbeabsichtigten - Mordes und sind nun quasi Komplizen des/der Protagonisten.Kuriose Gesellschaftsschichten verweben sich zu einem Geflecht, in dem schließlich kaum etwas so ist wie es zunächst scheint.Habe ich gerne weiter empfohlen.helibor

This didn't hook me as much as other Joseph Kanon books have, but I did enjoy it. There were fewer characters to keep track of in this Kanon book, which was a nice break from the standard Kanon read. If you like Kanon's other books and the premise of this one, you won't be disappointed.

Excellent

主人公は元米陸軍の戦犯調査員のアダム。アダムが1945年に母を頼って移ったのがヴェニス。中世より腐敗と策謀をくぐり抜け大戦中にナチとどんな関わりがあろうと何一つその姿を変えなかった古都。そして何も変えたくないヴェネツィア人社会。そんな沈みそうで沈まない水都の情景・人物を繊細なタッチで描き、単純な米国人青年と懐深い欧州人達との対立構造は興味深いです。ある殺人事件を端緒にホロコースト、パルチザン、ナチへの身売りをからめて話は犯人と捜査官の心理劇と逃走劇へと展開していくんですが・・・最初の事件での対処法が今一つ納得できず、アダムには感情移入できません。またヒロインであるホロコースト被害者クローディアとのやりとりもあまりにも稚拙でとってつけたような感じは最後まで拭えませんでした。美しい舞台と細やかな人物描写にもかかわらず、後半での水路上の活劇も退屈に感じ読み続けるのは多少苦痛だったのが正直な印象です。

Service just as predicted; very fast. Book in new condition.