Die, love! - Djordje Bajić

 While his fiancee was choosing the ideal wedding dress, someone on the ground floor of the famous fashion house Hermann murderously plunged a pair of scissors into the neck of the obscenely handsome Oliver Dilber. Inspector Nikola Liman set out to pave the way through the forest of lies and deception, expose the truth and find the criminal. Did one of the six women who were present in the fashion house that sunny afternoon - including Kristina Pajić, an ambitious lawyer who is passionately in a relationship with the inspector - get the head of the young and irresistible Dilber? Maybe. The only thing that is certain is that instead of the planned wedding, there will be a funeral, and not just one. Many seemingly incompatible life stories will suddenly touch, intersect and further complicate this already complicated case. The death of Oliver Dilber will be only the first toppled domino in a long bloody streak, which Liman will try to end forever.

And I died, but not as love but as a reader. O gods and aliens and other forces known and unknown... I finished reading last night, but my brain exploded so much that I couldn't form two meaningful sentences.

Đorđe Bajić surpassed himself with this novel. He grew and developed into a real, great writer of a new wave of Serbian crime novels. Do I like what Bajić is doing? Oh boy, I certanly do! He improved from the first novel in every way. He perfected his writing style, and his plots are better than those of Agatha Christie.

In the novel "Die, Love!" again, we hang out with old acquaintances inspector Nikola Liman and his friends and colleagues. Nikola is again faced with a big case in which the politician's daughter and, miraculously, Nikola's "girlfriend" are involved. The investigation will lead the brave policemen into many dangers, lead them astray and affect even their private lives.

In this novel, Bajić skilfully plays with the readers' imagination. He serves us the suspects on a silver platter, while saving the gold one for the end. Threads entangle, intertwine and untangle, forcing the brain to work 300 per hour. At one point, I was tempted to message the author: "Djole, please, tell me who killed Oliver?!?!" I doubted everyone, and in some moments even myself. Almost from the first page to the last, the question in my head was whether all the victims, and the novel abounds with them, fell at the hands of one or more murderers, and it doesn't lack them either. Mureders because of love, jealousy, passion, greed, everything is represented on almost 300 pages. Also, there is no shortage of blood or tension.

What I particularly liked about the novel "Die, Love!" is the fact that none of the characters have any so-called plot armor. Everyone is vulnerable in one way or another. I also like how Bajić develops the characters and builds their relationships. Each character is carefully worked out, sometimes it seems, down to the smallest detail. When reading, one gets the impression that there are no secondary characters in the novel, everyone is important in some way, and everyone contributes to the development of the story and solving the mystery. Oliver, who is almost dead from the first page, plays one of the most important roles in this whole rollercoaster.

It was a nice two-day ride. To be honest, it would have lasted even shorter, but obligations... "Die, love!" is really a book that can be "read in one breath", that "sticks you to the chair", and has a good and interesting story that won't let you put it down.

Like Bajić's previous novel "Death in Pink", this one was also published by Laguna. Interestingly, in just 3 days the sale of "Die, love!" made it to Laguna's TOP 40 list, at number twenty. I only hope that it will be an incentive for those responsible from this publishing house to reissue "Žuta kabanica" and "Jedno Đubre menje", which are not available in bookstores, but for which there is great interest and demand.

Now run to bookstores or to the website and enjoy reading! <3