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    The Night of Shooting Stars
    The Horseman's Song
    A Dark Song of Blood
    Ebook series4 titles

    Martin Bora Series

    By Ben Pastor

    ()

    About this series

    "Pastor's plot is well crafted, her prose sharp. . . . A disturbing mix of detection and reflection."Publishers Weekly

    "A mystery, it rivets the reader until the end and beyond, with its twist of historical realities. A historical piece, it faithfully reproduces the grim canvas of war. A character study, it captures the thoughts and actions of real people, not stereotypes."TheFree Lance-Star

    Part wartime political intrigue, detective story, psychological thriller, and religious mystery, Ben Pastor's debut follows a German army captain and a Chicago priest as they investigate the death of a nun in Nazi-occupied Poland.

    In October 1939 Captain Martin Bora discovers the abbess, Mother Kazimierza, shot dead in her convent garden. Her alleged power to see the future has brought her a devoted following; her work and motto, "Lumen Christi Adiuva Nos" ("Light of Christ, help us"), appear also to have brought some enemies.

    Father Malecki has come to Cracow, at the pope's bidding, to investigate Mother Kazimierza's powers. The Vatican orders him to stay and assist Bora in the inquiry into her killing. Stunned by the violence of the occupation and the ideology of his colleagues, Bora's sense of Prussian duty is tested to the breaking point. The interference of seductive actress Ewa Kowalska does not help matters.

    Ben Pastor, born in Italy, has lived for thirty years in the United States, working as a university professor in Vermont. She is the author of other novels, including The Water Thief and The Fire Walker (St. Martin's Press).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBitter Lemon Press
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    The Night of Shooting Stars
    The Horseman's Song
    A Dark Song of Blood

    Titles in the series (4)

    • 3

      A Dark Song of Blood
      A Dark Song of Blood

      A Dark Song of Blood

      Ben Pastor
      4/5 - 1 rating
      4/5 - 1 rating

      1. The third in the Martin Bora series. Spellbinding multi-layered crime novel set in a fascinating period and place. Set in the first months of 1944, Rome is declared an ‘open city’ as the Allies steadily get closer. The German occupying forces know their days are numbered and yet the SS, the Gestapo and the Army desperately vie for power. The partisans attack the fascists and the Germans, triggering mass-murder retaliation. 2. Controversially, the hero is an aristocratic German officer in the Wehrmacht. With echoes of Claus von Stauffenberg, he is torn between his duty as an officer and his integrity as a human being. He must investigate the deaths of a young German Embassy secretary, a Roman socialite and a cardinal, forcing him to confront historical characters like Field Marshal Kesselring and Monsignor Montini (the future Pope Paul VI). 3. Will appeal to fans of Phillip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series), Alan Furst (“Spies of the Balkans”) and Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader”. 4. It should benefit from the vogue for WWII in fiction, film and tv. “Valkyrie”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Pacific”. 5. Third of a series of five to be published by Bitter Lemon Press.

      1. The third in the Martin Bora series. Spellbinding multi-layered crime novel set in a fascinating period and place. Set in the first months of 1944, Rome is declared an ‘open city’ as the Allies steadily get closer. The German occupying forces know their days are numbered and yet the SS, the Gestapo and the Army desperately vie for power. The partisans attack the fascists and the Germans, triggering mass-murder retaliation. 2. Controversially, the hero is an aristocratic German officer in the Wehrmacht. With echoes of Claus von Stauffenberg, he is torn between his duty as an officer and his integrity as a human being. He must investigate the deaths of a young German Embassy secretary, a Roman socialite and a cardinal, forcing him to confront historical characters like Field Marshal Kesselring and Monsignor Montini (the future Pope Paul VI). 3. Will appeal to fans of Phillip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series), Alan Furst (“Spies of the Balkans”) and Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader”. 4. It should benefit from the vogue for WWII in fiction, film and tv. “Valkyrie”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Pacific”. 5. Third of a series of five to be published by Bitter Lemon Press.

    • 7

      The Night of Shooting Stars
      The Night of Shooting Stars

      The Night of Shooting Stars

      Ben Pastor
      0 ratings
      0 ratings

      Bora is ordered to investigate the murder of Walter Niemeyer, a dazzling clairvoyant, a star since the days of the Weimar Republic. For years he has mystified Germany with his astounding prophecies. Bora’s inquiry, supported by former S.A member Florian Grimm, resurrects memories of the excessive and brilliant world of Jazz Age cabarets and locales. Around them, in the oppressive summer heat, constant allied bombing, war-weary Berlin teems with refugees and nearly a million foreign laborers. Soon Bora realizes that there is much more at stake than murder in a paranoid city where everyone suspects everyone, and where persistent rumors whisper about a conspiracy aimed at the very heart of the Nazi hierarchy. Could the charming Emmy Pletsch, who works for Claus von Stauffenberg, be a key to understanding what is going on? Bora eventually meets with Stauffenberg, facing an anguishing moral dilemma, as a German soldier and as a man. The 20 July plot and its dramatic implications as never told before.

      Bora is ordered to investigate the murder of Walter Niemeyer, a dazzling clairvoyant, a star since the days of the Weimar Republic. For years he has mystified Germany with his astounding prophecies. Bora’s inquiry, supported by former S.A member Florian Grimm, resurrects memories of the excessive and brilliant world of Jazz Age cabarets and locales. Around them, in the oppressive summer heat, constant allied bombing, war-weary Berlin teems with refugees and nearly a million foreign laborers. Soon Bora realizes that there is much more at stake than murder in a paranoid city where everyone suspects everyone, and where persistent rumors whisper about a conspiracy aimed at the very heart of the Nazi hierarchy. Could the charming Emmy Pletsch, who works for Claus von Stauffenberg, be a key to understanding what is going on? Bora eventually meets with Stauffenberg, facing an anguishing moral dilemma, as a German soldier and as a man. The 20 July plot and its dramatic implications as never told before.

    • The Horseman's Song
      The Horseman's Song

      The Horseman's Song

      Ben Pastor
      0 ratings
      0 ratings

      Spain, summer 1937. The civil war between Spanish nationalists and republicans rages. On the bloody sierras of Aragon, among Generalissimo Franco’s volunteers is Martin Bora, the twenty-something German officer and detective whose future adventures will be told in Lumen, Liar Moon, The Road to Ithaca and others in the Bora series. Presently a lieutenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion, Bora lives the tragedy around him as an intoxicating epic, between idealism and youthful recklessness. The first doubts, however, rise in Bora’ s mind when he happens on the body of Federico Garcia Lorca, a brilliant poet, progressive and homosexual. Who murdered him? Why? The official version does not convince Bora, who begins a perilous investigation. His inquiry paradoxically proceeds alongside that which is being carried out by an “enemy”: Philip Walton, an American member of the International Brigades. Soon enough the German and the New Englander will join forces, and their cooperation will not only culminate in a thrilling chase after a murderer, but also in a very human, existential face-to-face between two adversaries forever changed by their crime-solving encounter...

      Spain, summer 1937. The civil war between Spanish nationalists and republicans rages. On the bloody sierras of Aragon, among Generalissimo Franco’s volunteers is Martin Bora, the twenty-something German officer and detective whose future adventures will be told in Lumen, Liar Moon, The Road to Ithaca and others in the Bora series. Presently a lieutenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion, Bora lives the tragedy around him as an intoxicating epic, between idealism and youthful recklessness. The first doubts, however, rise in Bora’ s mind when he happens on the body of Federico Garcia Lorca, a brilliant poet, progressive and homosexual. Who murdered him? Why? The official version does not convince Bora, who begins a perilous investigation. His inquiry paradoxically proceeds alongside that which is being carried out by an “enemy”: Philip Walton, an American member of the International Brigades. Soon enough the German and the New Englander will join forces, and their cooperation will not only culminate in a thrilling chase after a murderer, but also in a very human, existential face-to-face between two adversaries forever changed by their crime-solving encounter...

    • Lumen
      Lumen

      Lumen

      Ben Pastor
      3/5 - 2 ratings
      3/5 - 2 ratings

      1. Spellbinding multi-layered crime novel set in Poland during the Nazi occupation. 2. Controversially, the hero, Captain Martin Bora, is an aristocratic German officer in the Wehrmacht. With echos of Claus von Stauffenberg, he is torn between his duty as an officer and his integrity as a human being. Fascinating discussion of ethical and religious dilemmas in times of war 3. Will appeal to fans of Phillip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series), Alan Furst (“Spies of the Balkans”) and Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader”. 4. It should benefit from the current vogue for WWII in fiction, film and tv. “Valkyrie”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Pacific”. 5. First of a series of five to be published by Bitter Lemon Press.

      1. Spellbinding multi-layered crime novel set in Poland during the Nazi occupation. 2. Controversially, the hero, Captain Martin Bora, is an aristocratic German officer in the Wehrmacht. With echos of Claus von Stauffenberg, he is torn between his duty as an officer and his integrity as a human being. Fascinating discussion of ethical and religious dilemmas in times of war 3. Will appeal to fans of Phillip Kerr (Bernie Gunther series), Alan Furst (“Spies of the Balkans”) and Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader”. 4. It should benefit from the current vogue for WWII in fiction, film and tv. “Valkyrie”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Pacific”. 5. First of a series of five to be published by Bitter Lemon Press.

    Author

    Ben Pastor

    Ben Pastor, born in Italy, lived for thirty years in the United States, working as a university professor in Vermont and has since returned to her native country. She is the author of other novels including The Water Thief and The Fire Waker (set in Roman times and published to high acclaim in the US by St. Martin’s Press), and is considered one of the most talented writers in the field of historical fiction. In 2008 she won the prestigious Premio Zaragoza for best historical fiction. She writes in English.

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