A really intriguing setting, new I think to most U.S. readers: Romania. I know very little of this Eastern European nation other than the background I acquired from reading Dan Simmons ' CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT. SWORD is set more recently, and what an excellent view it provides of culture, nationalism, government, police procedure, and the near-constant ethnic tensions. What appears to be a new serial killer is targeting Roma criminals. Police and governmental agencies are baffled. What could be the connection? Ethnic cleansing? And will the backlash target the majority ethnicities? How to catch an "invisible, " elusive murderer?

A very well written and documented book. It an in-depth journalistic narrative of the current situation in Romania in regards to political games, corruption and the highest level, press manipulation and a serial killer who threatens to stir things between Romanians and Roma community.
Reading “SWORD” reminded me again just how easily society can be manipulated by media and implicitly the political class and also, how every single person (important or not) is just a piece of chess for the President to move around as he pleases. From a serial killer to dangerous political games, this book has them all and offers a clear picture of what Romania became after the 1989 Revolution when everyone thought that the gained freedom will bring them better brighter lives. Journalists are being bought or their careers are coming to a sudden end if they can’t bend towards the ones who have the power, contracts are being offered to different business people according with higher interests and the game is dirtier than we can see in the movies with low blows at all levels

A really unique novel this one. Part police procedural and part social and political commentary. There's a lot of interesting themes here such as the way the Roma population in romania are treated. Add in corruption and more corruption, violence and ever increasing tension and you have a compelling novel.

Very interested in reading more fiction from Romania! The author is a political analyst I believe and this adds reality and an added level of interest to the plot

I knew absolutely nothing about Romanian politics before reading this novel and, whilst i'm definitely not an expert, it's ignited an interest in a system that doesn't really get noticed much. This is a crime novel but written in a style that is more synonymous with a newspaper than what I would call a traditional Western crime novel - took a bit of getting used to. I enjoyed this though, a crime novel that highlights social tensions rather than a 'unique' serial killer and the detective looking for them. In all, a good read, a little heavy at times but, if you're looking crime in a novel setting then this is a good shout.

I’m really ashamed to say that I’m Romanian and haven’t read this book or the author before because it’s simply amazing and the translation was perfect in every possible way.
I loved to go back to my birth city and be reminded of how much the political influence impacts on every single day and institutions, especially in that period time when everything was still unsure and people were still hanging on the memory of the communist era.
It's atmospheric and suspenseful, it shows the real and hidden face of those that will step on dead bodies to gain power and privilege.
A must-read story for thriller lovers and especially if you want to have a peek inside one of the most beautiful European countries.

Well written tale of a country in chaos. You pay to play and the government is corrupt as it gets. Who or what is behind the sword? What will the opposing side do to get power? Well...

I don't think I have ever read any Romanian novel, but I know famous Romanian writers such as Mircea Eliade, Cioran or Ionesco, which are in school manuals and scare the sh... out of me. I thought it might be a good idea to enter this new territory the easier way, through mysteries. I must confess right away that I know Marina Sofia, the person who translated this book into English, whom I am honored to count as a friend, but I got the book on Netgalley the normal way, so I'll try to be as fair as possible.

Sword is by no way a normal whodunnit set in Romania. Yes, there are murders (several of them), policemen and an investigation, but who the serial killer is not exactly the point of the book. The core problem is that finding the killer seems to be in nobody's interest. It's not even the point of the police investigation, to be honest.

Right away the writer takes us behind closed doors, beyond the official version, to witness what all the inspectors, judges, ministers, presidents, journalists and other people with public roles are really thinking and saying about these violent events. And it's not pretty. By targeting exclusively Romas with a criminal record, the killer exposes the contradictions and weaknesses of the Romanian society: nobody can really approve the killer, but some parts of the Romanian population are hostile to Romas and don't see the killer as a bad guy at all. Soon enough the situation gets more complex as the murders are instrumentalized by politicians (oh, is it so uniquely Romanian? 😏), mixed up with other crimes that have nothing to do with the first, mixed up with geopolitical notions (basically, how to look good in front of the European institutions) and private interests.

Sadly, corruption and collusion between politicians and media are a universal problem it seems. Teodorescu was a journalist after the fall of the Communist regime, then a Secretary of State, Interim Minister for Information for one year in the 1990s, before becoming a Professor of political and electoral marketing at the National School of Political Studies in Romania. So we can assume there's sadly more than a little truth in the book. The result is rather cynical and slightly ironic, but it rather depressed me to find that it hits a little too close to home. I'm not sure the book would be endorsed by the Tourism bureau (nor was Dracula, by the way!), but I still hope to visit Romania one day.

this was a really good mystery, it had a suspenseful feeling to the book and I liked trying to figure out what was going on. I look forward to more from the author.