Rage

Miloszewski’s intriguing third novel featuring acerbic prosecutor Teodor Szacki (after 2013’s A Grain of Truth) explores domestic violence and its effect on victims while providing insights into modern Poland and its police force. Szacki expects the decades-old bones found at a construction site in the city of Olsztyn to be a routine case. It appears to be an old cadaver, but a forensic investigation proves that chemicals altered the remains, which are of a man who’s been dead less than 10 days. The deceased had a history of domestic abuse, as does another man who is found maimed but alive. Could domestic abusers be targeted? The often prickly Szacki has never physically hurt a woman, but he is forced to reevaluate his own attitudes toward women, especially regarding his live-in girlfriend, Zenia, and his teenage daughter, Hela, as the case intensifies. He also confronts the rage inside himself as he tries to understand the rage in others. Readers will miss Szacki, whose adventures are at an end according to a closing author’s note. (Aug.)