Dark
Funny (very)
Compassionate.

Here is the novel that the description tour de force was created for...a truly original first.
--Ken Bruen, author of The Guards

...a stunning and unique look at life and crime in a Soviet satellite nation.
--Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times

Everything that a listener could want is here: murder, political intrigue, blackmail, a love story, and a quality mystery...
--Scott R. DiMarco, Library Journal (audio review)

Steinhauer spins out his story in clean and simple prose that gleam with authenticity and captures a uniquely East European spirit. ...gripping, subversive...
--Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune

...a wonderfully taut tale...This is a series I will follow with eagerness.
--Paul Skenazy, Washington Post

...original and mesmerizing...
...an intelligent, finely polished debut, loaded with atmospheric detail that effortlessly re-creates the rubble-strewn streets of the postwar period.... Highly recommended.
--Ronnie H. Terpening, Library Journal

...brilliant portrayal of an unnamed country in the aftermath of the Second World War...
Bleak and uncompromising, this powerful novel grips from beginning to end.
--Susana Yager, Sunday Telegraph

...while Steinhauer has created a genuinely gripping police procedural, it's the feel of the social landscape that gives the novel its power and memorability.
--Margie Thomson, New Zealand Herald

Steinhauer has done an exceptional job of putting the reader into the post-World War II era ... and has constructed a tight plot that moves along quickly. ... very well written.
--Maddy Van Hertbruggen, Reviewing the Evidence

Olen Steinhauer in The Bridge of Sighs has created a remarkable first novel ... featuring Emil Brod, who could turn out to be one of the finest crime fiction creations of 2003.”
--The Halifax Chronicle-Herald

...thoughtful and impressive...
--The Guardian

In this richly drawn detective mystery ... the large cast of secondary characters is well realized, and the social and physical setting is powerfully drawn.
--Edna Boardman, Kliatt

Steinhauer has a gift for scenery, and his dark snapshots of Eastern Europe, circa 1948, make The Bridge of Sighs worth reading.
--The Montreal Gazette

...a novel of intense vitality... Lots of humor, lots of threads and an ever-deepening mystery that is unique and a fine start for a very promising new author.
--J Robert Janes, author of Dollmaker

Steinhauer captures the fatalism [of] ... Milan Kundera or Bohumil Hrabal, who actually lived through such totalitarian regimes. Despite this story being set 50 years in the past, the question at its heart is today as timely as it's ever been.
-- the News and Observer, Raleigh NC

The Bridge of Sighs is a richly atmospheric tale of one man's quixotix struggle to decipher the bleak enigma of postwar Eastern Europe. The intriguing young Inspector Brod is a character to remember.
--Dan Fesperman, author of Lie in the Dark

This is a finely-formed novel that evokes all of the desperation, intrigue, and bloody-mindedness that was post-war Europe, but it also brings to life the spirit of those people, who not only survived those horrible years, but went on to build new lives.
--Fenn Focus newsletter, Canada

Bridge of Sighs is an intelligent debut noir thriller full of atmosphere... A classic read.
--Chris Baron, The Budapest Sun

A stylish and evocative noir thriller from a promising new talent. You can almost smell the pungent black tobacco and nervejangling coffee. A powerful sense of place and a sinewy plot ensure that The Bridge of Sighs can rightfully take its place next to Alan Furst and Robert Harris.
--Adam LeBor, author of Milosevic

... a very well written first novel, full of chilling menace and overall a cracking good story.
--Publishing News, UK