The Bridge of Sighs

By: Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by: Ned Schmidtke

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In the volatile and shifting political atmosphere of Eastern Europe after World War II, an inexperienced homicide detective fresh out of the academy is assigned a crime that no one wants to solve. Set in a bombed-out city in an unnamed country formerly occupied by the Germans and now by the Russians, the story follows Emil Brod as he unravels the threads of the cover-up of a brutal murder, while supporting his grandparents, his only family, in the equally brutal city.

©2002 Olen Steinhauer (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Ned Schmidtke's deep, authoritative voice suits the story. He never gets in front of the action. Instead, he supports this atmospheric tale with well-paced, even reading and a few carefully chosen vocal mannerisms for the main characters. A moody, involving listen." (AudioFile)

Bridge of Sighs and Sounds

The first book in Olen Steinhauer's series chronicling the cold war through the eyes of an Eastern Bloc homicide squad. The story is brilliant, I thought, and puts the American reader, at least, on a side of the Iron Curtain to which he is not accustomed. A tremendous story that keeps you wondering till the last moment. Sadly the book is, I feel, marred by the narration. Mr. Schmidke keeps a good pace and does a passable job with story. His voice seems to lack the flexibility to handle the different characters in the book, and his female characters sound like Homer Simpson. Some characters don't even sound human. The voice of Emil's partner is particularly unlistenable.

This is a 5-star book. I took two stars off the overall because of the performance. If the performance doesn't bother you, you'll be fine.

Eh difficult

This was difficult to get through, hard to follow. I made it to the end, but it was not exactly satisfying.

Bridge of Sighs

This wasn’t what I was expecting but I really enjoyed listening to it. The story was riveting. When I wasn’t listening to the book, I wanted to be listening to the book. The narrator did a fantastic performance.

Great history

Terrific, complex story and interesting history. Very strong performance. Strong writing. Great read and perspective on post-war E. Europe

Depressing

I don't care that they caught the bad guy, it was too depressing to get that far. Ned Schmidtke did a great job but still I couldn't take it.

interesting, but….

Interesting perspectives on an interesting story about life in “the east” immediately after World War II. Narrator used a nice variety of voices that were offset by pronouncing too many German words incorrectly, as well as the word Moscow.

Dark happenings post war.

Some might find this story too dark. I reflexed against the despairing tone. Skip it unless you are interested in post war history.

Entertaining

Good story overall, however i thought the ending was anti climatic.very imaginative writing about fictional country

A great book

A wonderful book that I found to be developmental and maturative for a young man coming of age such as myself. I found a wonderful amount of relation with the author and the protagonist and I further highly recommend this book.

A cold-war murder mystery & a touch of espionage.

In this cold-war era murder mystery, Emil Brod, a new member of the homicide department, is frozen out by the other squad members but doesn't know why. He's assigned a "politico" case, a potential career killer in this unnamed Eastern Block country. He's got to figure out not just how to get the evidence against a high-ranking party official but also to understand why he's involved.

The story has a captivating plot and great character and scene development. The prose gives a feel for life in the bombed-out remains of so much of Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the war under Soviet occupation.

The setting could have easily fallen into the trap of cold-war tensions and espionage, but the author skillfully avoids the cliche, focusing on police work in a time and place when forensic analysis remained primitive (by today's standards), the political upper crust could interfere with investigations, and the locals worried about upsetting the occupation forces.