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Iron City #2
Death Spoke
The murder of a university dean, Joyce Fulbright, a renowned archaeologist and expert on prehistoric cave paintings, reveals webs of sexual blackmail, academic treachery, and archaeological fraud surrounding the most famous cave art in France. Accused of her murder, her lover, the chair of the Anthropology Department, hires PI Harry Przewalski to clear him.
Przewalski excavates the deadly archaeological layers of the case, finding lives torn by deceit, vendetta and redemption. As dean, Fulbright's ruthless academic politics brought power and deadly enemies. As an archaeologist, she and her academic adversaries are engaged in a bitter fight over the sudden appearance of magnificent cave art across southern France and Spain 32,000 years ago. Who ochred the luminous paintings of bison, deer, mammoths, and horses? And why? Her studies threatened to embarrass French cultural heritage and ruin professional careers--the art in one of the most famous caves was likely forged in the 1950s to attract tourists. Equally explosive is a bold theory that the cave artists were not hunters or shamans, but outcasts who retreated into the deepest recesses of the caves, driven by their precocious talent and psychological isolation.
Przewalski meets Ruby, a former student of Fulbright's and victim of academic prejudice, who abandoned archaeology, literary studies and an abusive marriage. They are attracted to one another, both casualties of disillusion. They discover that Fulbright has been living a double life, desperate to keep her past coffined and buried. Her murder is a diabolical act of revenge for a horrific atrocity committed during World War II in Nazi-occupied France.
The second installment in the Harry Przewalski series. The first book in the series is The Bone Field.
Przewalski excavates the deadly archaeological layers of the case, finding lives torn by deceit, vendetta and redemption. As dean, Fulbright's ruthless academic politics brought power and deadly enemies. As an archaeologist, she and her academic adversaries are engaged in a bitter fight over the sudden appearance of magnificent cave art across southern France and Spain 32,000 years ago. Who ochred the luminous paintings of bison, deer, mammoths, and horses? And why? Her studies threatened to embarrass French cultural heritage and ruin professional careers--the art in one of the most famous caves was likely forged in the 1950s to attract tourists. Equally explosive is a bold theory that the cave artists were not hunters or shamans, but outcasts who retreated into the deepest recesses of the caves, driven by their precocious talent and psychological isolation.
Przewalski meets Ruby, a former student of Fulbright's and victim of academic prejudice, who abandoned archaeology, literary studies and an abusive marriage. They are attracted to one another, both casualties of disillusion. They discover that Fulbright has been living a double life, desperate to keep her past coffined and buried. Her murder is a diabolical act of revenge for a horrific atrocity committed during World War II in Nazi-occupied France.
The second installment in the Harry Przewalski series. The first book in the series is The Bone Field.
- GenresMystery
277 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 2019
4 people are currently reading
363 people want to read
About the author
Leonard Krishtalka
14 books32 followers Leonard Krishtalka has enjoyed two parallel careers––professional paleontologist, and author/novelist. As a paleontologist he has led and worked on expeditions throughout the fossil-rich badlands of western Canada and the US, Patagonia, Europe, China, Kenya and Ethiopia, excavating and studying the past life and cultures of the planet. He has held academic posts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the University of Pittsburgh, the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, and The University of Kansas, Lawrence.
As a novelist, Krishtalka uses the mystery genre to explore the human condition. He is the author of the award-winning Harry Przewalski novels: The Bone Field, Death Spoke, The Camel Driver, and the forthcoming Native Blood (Dec. 6, 2023). His fifth novel, The Body on the Bed, is historical fiction that investigates a murder and sensational trial in 1871 amid the social upheaval of post-Civil War Lawrence, Kansas.
Krishtalka is also an op-ed contributor to the Lawrence Journal-World, a past columnist for Carnegie Magazine, and author of the acclaimed book, Dinosaur Plots.
As a novelist, Krishtalka uses the mystery genre to explore the human condition. He is the author of the award-winning Harry Przewalski novels: The Bone Field, Death Spoke, The Camel Driver, and the forthcoming Native Blood (Dec. 6, 2023). His fifth novel, The Body on the Bed, is historical fiction that investigates a murder and sensational trial in 1871 amid the social upheaval of post-Civil War Lawrence, Kansas.
Krishtalka is also an op-ed contributor to the Lawrence Journal-World, a past columnist for Carnegie Magazine, and author of the acclaimed book, Dinosaur Plots.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 29, 2020
Another wonderfully researched and crafted murder mystery.
Rooted in historical facts the author then flicks an internal switch that draws on all these accounts and then weaves fact and fiction into a new and exciting story. From Pittsburgh to Abilene, Kansas. Then back to Europe and Cave Art at Rouffignac in the Dordogne, France.
This ability to write around real-life events and twist them into a convincing and compelling novel. Drawing on the darker days of Nazi occupied France we are given an insight into academic struggle to the top and intellectual renown.
Although, the suspects tend to be professors and the elite of university life the skill is to have a murder victim who was universally disliked with people queuing up to kill her.
I appreciate the historical context and the stretching of events to fit the story. Our reluctant PI is bright and comfortable around these people as we learned in the first book. He seems to be able to probe and ask difficult questions. He has no sidekicks, so the clues are littered about after each fresh interview; so, he never lets us into his thinking, and we have scope to flit from suspect to suspect.
It is a terrific skill to keep the field of suspects all in the frame and conceal motive for the duration of a novel. No cheap tricks here just a simple ability to write expansive fiction, in interesting locations and unusual characters.
I was moved by the interactions with Harry’s parents and vast landscapes and weather that fills the page and the scientific hints around archaeological and art history study.
The introduction of the Tour de France and cycling in general was another bonus. The love and care that author Leonard Krishtalka gives to such subjects is the additional bonus that brilliant writing brings.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review. My opinions are mine alone, but the book is available to all.
Rooted in historical facts the author then flicks an internal switch that draws on all these accounts and then weaves fact and fiction into a new and exciting story. From Pittsburgh to Abilene, Kansas. Then back to Europe and Cave Art at Rouffignac in the Dordogne, France.
This ability to write around real-life events and twist them into a convincing and compelling novel. Drawing on the darker days of Nazi occupied France we are given an insight into academic struggle to the top and intellectual renown.
Although, the suspects tend to be professors and the elite of university life the skill is to have a murder victim who was universally disliked with people queuing up to kill her.
I appreciate the historical context and the stretching of events to fit the story. Our reluctant PI is bright and comfortable around these people as we learned in the first book. He seems to be able to probe and ask difficult questions. He has no sidekicks, so the clues are littered about after each fresh interview; so, he never lets us into his thinking, and we have scope to flit from suspect to suspect.
It is a terrific skill to keep the field of suspects all in the frame and conceal motive for the duration of a novel. No cheap tricks here just a simple ability to write expansive fiction, in interesting locations and unusual characters.
I was moved by the interactions with Harry’s parents and vast landscapes and weather that fills the page and the scientific hints around archaeological and art history study.
The introduction of the Tour de France and cycling in general was another bonus. The love and care that author Leonard Krishtalka gives to such subjects is the additional bonus that brilliant writing brings.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review. My opinions are mine alone, but the book is available to all.
October 14, 2020
In the second Harry Przewalkski novel, we again get a murder mystery with a hotel full of suspects all of whom are brimming with motive. This time Harry takes a case out of Abilene, Kansas, where the KU anthropology department is doing a cross-state goodwill bus tour. If you thought anyone was vicious, you haven't yet tangled with college faculty members who have had their tenure applications rejected or their academic theories torn to shreds. And, that's even before you get to all the sleeping around to get ahead, the vicious ex-spouses with a grudge, and the twisted affairs criss-crossing the faculty offices. There is also a backstory with respect to Nazi-occupied France and the cruelties heaped on the people of an occupied village and ancient cave drawings. Not too many murder mysteries are set in small Midwestern towns, but understand that, for many, murder is only a fit of anger away.
January 18, 2021
June Albright is the Dean of the faculty of liberal arts and science at the university of Kansas and an expert on prehistoric cave art. She is also ruthless and uses her power as dean to force sexual favours from the male faculty of the department. When she is murdered, no one is surprised. There are plenty of suspects to choose from - men who's careers were ruined when they spurned her advances as well as many of her adversaries from archeology whose theories she has ridiculed. But the most obvious suspect is her latest lover, Dr Porter. But Porter swears he's innocent and when he's arrested, he hires one-time paleontologist and now private detective, Harry Przewalski to prove it. Harry isn't completely convinced of Porter's innocence given the evidence against him but he is intrigued by the case, especially its links to the question of the authenticity of cave art near Rouffignac, a small village in France and the site of an unspeakable atrocity during WWII.
Death Spoke is the second Harry Przewalski novel by author Leonard Krishtalka and it is already near the top pf my list of best modern mystery series. It is intelligent, well-written and blends real history and science seamlessly into the story. It also has one of the most interesting protagonists in Harry that I have encountered in mysteries since...well, forever. But most importantly, it is engrossing and damn near unputdownable. A definite high recommendation for anyone who likes smart mysteries with plenty of suspense and twists and turns as well as a look behind the curtain of academia and references to history that rarely gets taught in school.
Thanks to Netgalley and Anamcara Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Death Spoke is the second Harry Przewalski novel by author Leonard Krishtalka and it is already near the top pf my list of best modern mystery series. It is intelligent, well-written and blends real history and science seamlessly into the story. It also has one of the most interesting protagonists in Harry that I have encountered in mysteries since...well, forever. But most importantly, it is engrossing and damn near unputdownable. A definite high recommendation for anyone who likes smart mysteries with plenty of suspense and twists and turns as well as a look behind the curtain of academia and references to history that rarely gets taught in school.
Thanks to Netgalley and Anamcara Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
February 15, 2024
Another riveting murder mystery in academia
Death spoke is a tour de force of murder and archaeological mystery. From the mid Kansas wheat fields to esoteric bicycle shops of Pittsburgh to the cave paintings of France.
A great piece of writing.
Death spoke is a tour de force of murder and archaeological mystery. From the mid Kansas wheat fields to esoteric bicycle shops of Pittsburgh to the cave paintings of France.
A great piece of writing.
September 8, 2020
This book just kept me on my toes! I kept second guessing if I really had the right murderer.
It was the first book I´ve ever read of Leonard Krishtalka and let me say that I loved it and I´ll defenitly be reading more books of him.
It was the first book I´ve ever read of Leonard Krishtalka and let me say that I loved it and I´ll defenitly be reading more books of him.
August 31, 2019
KIRKUS REVIEW: Death Spoke, August 29, 2019
A cerebral detective investigates the killing of a renowned archaeologist who may have stumbled on a major case of academic fraud in this sequel.
Joyce Fulbright is a dean at the University of Kansas and an academic superstar, famous for her research on prehistoric art left scrawled in the caves of France. When she’s murdered, all eyes immediately turn to her colleague and furtive lover, Dr. James Porter, who quickly admits to their affair but vehemently denies killing her. Still, the evidence so strongly implicates him—his hair and semen were found on the scene, and his skin under Fulbright’s fingernails—that even Porter’s own lawyer takes his guilt for granted. Porter hires private eye Harry Przewalski to investigate, a hard-boiled veteran who was once deployed to Iraq, and so uncommonly erudite he impresses even the scholars he meets. Harry quickly determines that the list of those with a motive to kill Fulbright is long—she treated her associates with despotic disdain and even blackmailed some for sexual favors. As one colleague of Fulbright’s puts it, referring to an academic excursion that she attended: “Christ, half the faculty on that bus would have loved to suffocate the bitch.” Krishtalka (The Bone Field, 2018, etc.), continuing a series that chronicles Harry’s exploits, skillfully mixes a murder mystery with an intricate tale of academic intrigue and historical drama. Harry discovers that Fulbright had scholarly reasons to suspect that the art in one particular cave in France in a village named Rouffignac is fraudulent and at the site of an unspeakable atrocity during World War II.
At the heart of the author’s astonishingly clever tale—both intelligently conceived and executed—is the protagonist. Harry is slyly intellectual, lacks pretension, and harbors a profound storehouse of pain belied by his emotional reticence. Some of the author’s best writing in the book—his prose is consistently sharp and illustrative—describes Harry’s quiet torment. Consider this passage that eloquently captures the traumatic fallout of his mother’s debilitating illness: “Harry had felt his father shrink from the stealth of Emilia’s decay, from her no longer knowing who is me and who is them and who is us. They would come upon Emilia rehearsing her life from a list she’d written on a piece of paper.” And while the plot flirts with implausibility, given the introduction of an unlikely coincidence that weaves Emilia into Harry’s investigation of the crime, it remains grippingly suspenseful. In addition, Krishtalka provides a scathing peek into the venal corridors of academic life and its petty power struggles over professional status. Fulbright emerges as a tantalizingly complex figure, capable of grotesque displays of immorality, but still moved by a principled attachment to the truth, a commitment sometimes interred under the small-minded squabbles of scholarly life. The author provides the best this genre has to offer: a riveting exploration of a crime blended with a deeply stirring examination of human nature.
A cinematically immersive murder mystery deftly combined with an intellectual drama.
A cerebral detective investigates the killing of a renowned archaeologist who may have stumbled on a major case of academic fraud in this sequel.
Joyce Fulbright is a dean at the University of Kansas and an academic superstar, famous for her research on prehistoric art left scrawled in the caves of France. When she’s murdered, all eyes immediately turn to her colleague and furtive lover, Dr. James Porter, who quickly admits to their affair but vehemently denies killing her. Still, the evidence so strongly implicates him—his hair and semen were found on the scene, and his skin under Fulbright’s fingernails—that even Porter’s own lawyer takes his guilt for granted. Porter hires private eye Harry Przewalski to investigate, a hard-boiled veteran who was once deployed to Iraq, and so uncommonly erudite he impresses even the scholars he meets. Harry quickly determines that the list of those with a motive to kill Fulbright is long—she treated her associates with despotic disdain and even blackmailed some for sexual favors. As one colleague of Fulbright’s puts it, referring to an academic excursion that she attended: “Christ, half the faculty on that bus would have loved to suffocate the bitch.” Krishtalka (The Bone Field, 2018, etc.), continuing a series that chronicles Harry’s exploits, skillfully mixes a murder mystery with an intricate tale of academic intrigue and historical drama. Harry discovers that Fulbright had scholarly reasons to suspect that the art in one particular cave in France in a village named Rouffignac is fraudulent and at the site of an unspeakable atrocity during World War II.
At the heart of the author’s astonishingly clever tale—both intelligently conceived and executed—is the protagonist. Harry is slyly intellectual, lacks pretension, and harbors a profound storehouse of pain belied by his emotional reticence. Some of the author’s best writing in the book—his prose is consistently sharp and illustrative—describes Harry’s quiet torment. Consider this passage that eloquently captures the traumatic fallout of his mother’s debilitating illness: “Harry had felt his father shrink from the stealth of Emilia’s decay, from her no longer knowing who is me and who is them and who is us. They would come upon Emilia rehearsing her life from a list she’d written on a piece of paper.” And while the plot flirts with implausibility, given the introduction of an unlikely coincidence that weaves Emilia into Harry’s investigation of the crime, it remains grippingly suspenseful. In addition, Krishtalka provides a scathing peek into the venal corridors of academic life and its petty power struggles over professional status. Fulbright emerges as a tantalizingly complex figure, capable of grotesque displays of immorality, but still moved by a principled attachment to the truth, a commitment sometimes interred under the small-minded squabbles of scholarly life. The author provides the best this genre has to offer: a riveting exploration of a crime blended with a deeply stirring examination of human nature.
A cinematically immersive murder mystery deftly combined with an intellectual drama.
July 28, 2019
This is an exciting, well plotted, mystery. This is the second book in a series in what I hope will be many more adventures of Harry Przewalski, a private investigator based in Pittsburgh, but with connections to Kansas.
In this novel the author has moved the academic world from one of a war of ideas to literally a matter of life and death. The driver of this mystery is the death of Joyce Fulbright, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas. The obvious suspect, James Porter, Chair of the Anthropology Department, admits to having an affair with the deceased, and has no alibi. Even his lawyer does not believe his professed innocence. Grasping at straws, Porter enlists Harry’s help. And as Harry finds out, many people do not feel loss (and some may feel joy) at the dean’s demise.
The author brings to bear his considerable understanding of anthropology through the use of questions about cave art in France, and highlights the challenges when someone outside of an area (e.g., Art)) offers ideas about an area (e.g., Anthropology); the author even suggests another rationale for some of the cave paintings. There is also a very intriguing use of a parallel story about a Nazi atrocity around the French town of Rouffignac (an event that really took place), a town close to the Rouffignac cave and its “cave art.”
Furthermore, the author uses his knowledge of Pittsburgh and Lawrence Kansas to give the reader a real sense of “being there”. I also note that while the faculty depicted in the book have social problems (envy, hate, …), the student, Ruby, graduating from that school was a wonderful and intelligent co-protagonist in the story. We also get to meet Harry’s father and mother (helps build Harry’s character). I note that some of the book is an homage to the author’s own joy of bicycle touring.
Finally, as with the first book, the author sprinkles in some insights about our human experience. For example (page 168, Chapter 37): “So much of human life, Harry thought, was taken up with the transport of refuse from one place to another. Except our emotional refuse – there was no hauling it away. We were our own emotional landfills, never quite burying the litter of the past.”
Given that I have read the first (The Bone Field) and the second in this series, enjoyed both, both have great endings, let me say that I enjoyed this second story more. As I said above, I am looking forward to enjoying more detecting from Harry, and learning more about different aspects of the author’s wide knowledge and insights.
As a disclaimer, I have known the author for many years, as a scientist. I have received an early version of the book from the author. Please go to Goodreads for my review of The Bone Field.
As as with all reviews, these are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions or positions of others.
In this novel the author has moved the academic world from one of a war of ideas to literally a matter of life and death. The driver of this mystery is the death of Joyce Fulbright, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas. The obvious suspect, James Porter, Chair of the Anthropology Department, admits to having an affair with the deceased, and has no alibi. Even his lawyer does not believe his professed innocence. Grasping at straws, Porter enlists Harry’s help. And as Harry finds out, many people do not feel loss (and some may feel joy) at the dean’s demise.
The author brings to bear his considerable understanding of anthropology through the use of questions about cave art in France, and highlights the challenges when someone outside of an area (e.g., Art)) offers ideas about an area (e.g., Anthropology); the author even suggests another rationale for some of the cave paintings. There is also a very intriguing use of a parallel story about a Nazi atrocity around the French town of Rouffignac (an event that really took place), a town close to the Rouffignac cave and its “cave art.”
Furthermore, the author uses his knowledge of Pittsburgh and Lawrence Kansas to give the reader a real sense of “being there”. I also note that while the faculty depicted in the book have social problems (envy, hate, …), the student, Ruby, graduating from that school was a wonderful and intelligent co-protagonist in the story. We also get to meet Harry’s father and mother (helps build Harry’s character). I note that some of the book is an homage to the author’s own joy of bicycle touring.
Finally, as with the first book, the author sprinkles in some insights about our human experience. For example (page 168, Chapter 37): “So much of human life, Harry thought, was taken up with the transport of refuse from one place to another. Except our emotional refuse – there was no hauling it away. We were our own emotional landfills, never quite burying the litter of the past.”
Given that I have read the first (The Bone Field) and the second in this series, enjoyed both, both have great endings, let me say that I enjoyed this second story more. As I said above, I am looking forward to enjoying more detecting from Harry, and learning more about different aspects of the author’s wide knowledge and insights.
As a disclaimer, I have known the author for many years, as a scientist. I have received an early version of the book from the author. Please go to Goodreads for my review of The Bone Field.
As as with all reviews, these are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions or positions of others.
August 5, 2020
Kris has crafted a great mystery novel that has a lot of personal connections. He's a fellow knowledgeable road bike rider and fellow KU faculty/staff member. I like spatial details in novels and often follow with an atlas or constantly Googling information. Could easily follow Przewalski's path around campus and Lawrence and I was familiar enough with Abilene, Topeka and the Les Ezyie/Bordeaux region. The private lives of KU faculty reminded me of the Iowa State faculty in Jane Smiley's Moo. Having just read David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, a work I enjoyed but worked hard to keep details straight, I appreciated the crisp pace of Krishtalka's chapter - the story flowed without a wasted word. A great summer read.
February 16, 2020
I bumped into this author at the grocery store, started a conversation about his newspaper articles and he unabashedly (his word) promoted his novels. So I bought the first two and have read and enjoyed both The Bone Field and Death Spoke.
Leonard Krishtalka has a great eye for detail using wonderfully crafted words to color characters and spaces. His writing slows your reading down so that you can taste and see what he describes. His heros are edgy but if Harry Przewalski rolls one more cigarette, I think the detective may die before the end of the book.
His villains are a little too obvious, reeking of sanctimony or character flaws targeting them as suspects and leaving the reader to only ponder how it was done, but not who did it.
On an aside, if you have ever lived in or visited Lawrence, you will recognize the locales in Death Spoke and enjoy a walk through memory lane.
Leonard Krishtalka has a great eye for detail using wonderfully crafted words to color characters and spaces. His writing slows your reading down so that you can taste and see what he describes. His heros are edgy but if Harry Przewalski rolls one more cigarette, I think the detective may die before the end of the book.
His villains are a little too obvious, reeking of sanctimony or character flaws targeting them as suspects and leaving the reader to only ponder how it was done, but not who did it.
On an aside, if you have ever lived in or visited Lawrence, you will recognize the locales in Death Spoke and enjoy a walk through memory lane.
March 13, 2020
Sex, cave art, murder, cycling - what's not to like. This really is a good book. If you live in Lawrence and ride a bicycle it will be especially of interest to you. I know most of the streets and buildings that are part of the story. This is a mystery who-done-it that keeps the pages turning. As a bonus, there is an interesting discussion of southern France cave art and various theories surrounding them. I assume at least some of these theories are real ones being debated and suspect that Kris has added his own. Who knows?
June 1, 2020
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's always fun to learn about something that you didn't expect to learn in a mystery. In this case, bicycle history.
July 24, 2020
Easy read
The story is fast moving and a page-turner
The author is an expert paleontologist who explains the science and history accurately.
The story is fast moving and a page-turner
The author is an expert paleontologist who explains the science and history accurately.
October 13, 2020
I have found another series to read and one I think you will like too. With a mixture of history, archaeology, and murder all combined with the academic world you end up with a really good "who done it?"
I like the main character very well, not your usual gumshoe but one with an interesting background. He take on the college scene with chutzpah and holds his own in the cut-throat world of academic tenure. I thought workplaces were scary. So glad I didn't try and become a college professor.
The ending is perfect and I think you will enjoy the others in this series. I plan on going back and reading more.
I like the main character very well, not your usual gumshoe but one with an interesting background. He take on the college scene with chutzpah and holds his own in the cut-throat world of academic tenure. I thought workplaces were scary. So glad I didn't try and become a college professor.
The ending is perfect and I think you will enjoy the others in this series. I plan on going back and reading more.
May 7, 2024
A well developed story that kept the wheels turning with an array of characters that delved into the ugly side of the unstable academia's hierarchy structure that leaves everyone a suspect. What a great ride it was. Really thought the author did a bang up job of keeping you guessing by introducing new evidence that only an avid bicyclists would know along with the help of an student of Art History with a thesis on the cave dwelling in France. I enjoyed the settings, characters and the time periods of Hitler's genocide in history.
February 4, 2021
I do like this private detective tory. It is the second one I have read of this series. Harry is asked to clear a professor from a murder charge. The length he goes to gather evidence is amazing. He has so many folks that wanted the victim dead. As he runs down the stories on each potential suspect we get to go along to learn all he unearths. I thought his methods interesting and detailed. The ending was a good one. I liked the book.
I read the book on NetGalley
I read the book on NetGalley
March 7, 2022
This is a well-written, well-constructed murder mystery that kept me engrossed from page one. Not only is the crime interesting but the inside view of university facility maneuvering adds to the story. And, Harry interested me so much that I'll have to go back and find the earlier book in this series.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
December 31, 2021
A really enjoyable whodunnit. For me it was just a little complicated…a good mystery writer recaps and sums up every so often - I thought that could have been better. Even a list of characters would have helped.
March 4, 2020
Started pretty slow, but it did pick up...some.
November 21, 2023
Excellent second book in the Harry Przewalski series! Great descriptions that take the reader back to 2004 Lawrence, Kansas and the University of Kansas.
December 3, 2025
Death Spoke by Leonard Krishtalka is not just your conventional fluff murder mystery.
The subject matter during the time of Nazi Germany and the caves in France makes it not only a terrifying encounter of the times but a hard to put down book with its myriad of characters and twists and turns and its heart wrenching moments. It really makes you think!
Besides it being a murder mystery, there were so many intertwined interesting glimpses of history, academia and archaeology… a constant learning experience, besides a who’s done it that kept me awake and guessing up to the last few pages.
Krishtalka’s writing is so very descriptive that you feel you are right there in those moments as his shadow. Definitely a worthwhile read and I look forward to the third book 'The Camel Rider' in the Przewalski series…next on my reading list.
The subject matter during the time of Nazi Germany and the caves in France makes it not only a terrifying encounter of the times but a hard to put down book with its myriad of characters and twists and turns and its heart wrenching moments. It really makes you think!
Besides it being a murder mystery, there were so many intertwined interesting glimpses of history, academia and archaeology… a constant learning experience, besides a who’s done it that kept me awake and guessing up to the last few pages.
Krishtalka’s writing is so very descriptive that you feel you are right there in those moments as his shadow. Definitely a worthwhile read and I look forward to the third book 'The Camel Rider' in the Przewalski series…next on my reading list.
February 26, 2021
2.5*
There were things I liked about this mystery and there were plenty of red herrings sprinkled throughout. However, unlike some mysteries, there was an attempt to wrap all those up by the end.
There are a few errors; the most noticeable for a born and bred Kansan is when our MC quotes the Kansas state motto incorrectly. It's "Ad astra per aspera", which is always translated as "To the stars through difficulties." Every Kansas school child learns this and a quick internet search would have shown this. Another quick search shows that his quoted translation is actually for another Latin phrase. I know it's picky, but it's sloppy.
But, all in all, I feel there's probably an audience for this one, so give it a try if it looks appealing.
There were things I liked about this mystery and there were plenty of red herrings sprinkled throughout. However, unlike some mysteries, there was an attempt to wrap all those up by the end.
There are a few errors; the most noticeable for a born and bred Kansan is when our MC quotes the Kansas state motto incorrectly. It's "Ad astra per aspera", which is always translated as "To the stars through difficulties." Every Kansas school child learns this and a quick internet search would have shown this. Another quick search shows that his quoted translation is actually for another Latin phrase. I know it's picky, but it's sloppy.
But, all in all, I feel there's probably an audience for this one, so give it a try if it looks appealing.
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July 29, 2020Great news: Death Spoke awarded gold medal for best novel, Fiction––Mystery/Thriller by Midwest Independent Publishers Association.
Honored that Death Spoke is a current finalist for the Midwest Book Award in Fiction––Mystery/Thriller.
https://pic.twitter.com/pihkfUCtvA
MidwestBookAwards, @MIPABookAwards
Congrats to the finalists in the Fiction—Mystery/Thriller category! Good luck to "Death Spoke" by Leonard Krishtalka, @LKrishtalka
@vrydberg
#midwestbookawards
Honored that Death Spoke is a current finalist for the Midwest Book Award in Fiction––Mystery/Thriller.
https://pic.twitter.com/pihkfUCtvA
MidwestBookAwards, @MIPABookAwards
Congrats to the finalists in the Fiction—Mystery/Thriller category! Good luck to "Death Spoke" by Leonard Krishtalka, @LKrishtalka
@vrydberg
#midwestbookawards
December 12, 2023
Received this as a Goodreads giveaway. Review to come soon.
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