Book Review: Death Can’t Take a Joke by Anya Lipska – Number two in the Kershaw and Kiszka series, showing that it wasn’t only plumbers that came over from Poland

Lipska’s first book Where the Devil Can’t Go had been in a virtual pile of unread books on my Kindle for a while and when I saw the second in the series, I decided to skip book one and go straight for book two.  The two central characters in Death Can’t take a Joke are the same as in book one – Natalie Kershaw, the ambitious detective and Janusz Kiszka, a kind of honest fixer for the local Polish Community, who might be best described as a big hearted bear of a Pole.

 

The plot starts with a series of seemingly unconnected events – a body falling from the top of a building in Canary Wharf, another body fished out of the river Thames and Kiszka’s best friend stabbed to death outside his own house in a completely motiveless attack that leaves the police baffled.  Kershaw and Kiszka each start their own investigations and their paths cross with action in both the UK and Poland.  Kiszka finds the killer clue that will solve the case, diligently following it up at considerable risk to himself and Kershaw. 

 

I thought the book very well written, with a nice easy style that was fluent, engaging and carried me along easily.  The characters are good – they may at times seem cheesy – a cat called Copernicus, D S Bacon (Streaky) and Kiszka’s wayward friend Oskar but as the book progresses, they come across as well developed and never lacking in surprises.  Oskar could be seen as just comic relief, but to someone like me from an East European background is completely authentic in his attitude, behaviour and even his coarse conversation.  Oh and just to make things a little bit more complicated for Kershaw, dearest Ben her boyfriend, well, he’s not as whiter than white as Kershaw thought he was.  Oh dear!

 

Well, you’ll realise I really liked the book – in fact I liked it so much I then went back to read the first in the series.  Again, I wasn’t disappointed, in fact very satisfied with Lipska’s interesting blend of contemporary migrant life, a quite unpleasant criminal undercurrent and seeing a little bit of the history that made these people’s lives what they are.

 

Finally, if you’re interested in finding out more about Lipska and how she brings together Polish history and contemporary crime writing, here’s a link to a fascinating newspaper interview:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/anya-lipska-a-tortured-past-brought-to-life-in-crime-fiction-9223970.html

 

Romancrimeblogger

 

PS - today, 8 June,  this book is £1.99 on Kindle