No Good News

Superintendent Výrová is on the trail of a heartless serial killer.

The mugging of a student gone awry. The unpremeditated murder of a Ukrainian professor of history, who fled to the Czech Republic to escape the war. A frenzied attack on the regional manager of a security agency. Did a conspiracy theorist really die of natural causes? Are these events connected, or is this just a series of coincidences? Are there more such crimes? After the tragic outcome of her last case, former police superintendent Marie Výrová has undertaken to devote herself to her family and her teaching at the law faculty, and to get involved in no more investigations. But then an old friend calls with a request...

The novel No Good News is an engaging, intimate social drama infused with love, jealousy, sex, manipulation and hatred. It retains the unmistakable atmosphere of Olomouc’s historic squares, narrow streets and old university buildings. It also features uninviting, deserted roads between frozen fields, and mysterious buildings inhabited by “men who hate women”. Ferocious dogs, too. And evil that breeds evil. But also justice, which, together with the strong arm of the law, just about wins out in the end.

This topical, suspense-filled detective story is further evidence of why this popular author’s books enjoy enduring popularity in the genre. An engaging story, credible depictions of milieux and character, reflections on the contemporary world, and above all, stubborn but likeable Maria Výrová, who, even though she has left the police, still has all her abilities and indomitability.

Martin Stöhr, editor, Host Publishers

‘I don’t see detective stories as mere entertainments in which every problem is solved with the revelation of the perpetrator, before the whole is resolved in a happy ending,’ the author explains. ‘Detective stories should depict our present, and reasons and motives that lead people to commit crimes. They shouldn’t cast reality in a rosy light. I wrote No Good News with these thoughts in mind. The characters in the novel are fictional, but I wanted them to be people you know or might meet on the street. Or in the woods. Because they live in the same world as us.’