A Coffin for Dimitrios (The Mask of Dimitrios)

⚖The case for it

A mystery novelist on holiday in Istanbul sees a body in a morgue and decides to find out who the man was, which is how Latimer ends up crossing the Balkans collecting testimony. Everyone he interviews gets a voice and a motive, assembling a picture the way Citizen Kane does. Mr Peters, the fat old criminal who attaches himself en route, is the character readers quote. The interwar Europe underneath is “bustling, seedy, multilingual, darkly cosmopolitan,” with real procedure to how the rackets work. Le Carré is said to have taken the template. Around 250 pages.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Long stretches are “people sitting around talking about Dimitrios” rather than anything happening, which readers call “a lot of tell and very little show.” The middle turns into “a really long, dry lecture class” once present action gives way to retrospect. Latimer is a blank the colourful side characters happen to, underwritten next to every person he interviews. Readers who came for a spy thriller find an amateur poking at a true-crime file instead. “The pacing flags somewhat in the middle,” and some finish out of duty rather than pleasure.

— the honest librarian

6h

honest hours

9

sittings