Split

Split was an intriguing deep-dive into the way of life and political climate of this Mediterranean city during the 1930's. After reading the blurb, I thought the murder mystery plot line would take center stage, but this is foremost a historical fiction novel, and it took me a while to acclimatize to the narrative style. Though the characters are interesting and diverse, there are a lot of them, with Slavic or German names unfamiliar to me, and when the author switched points of view, it took me at least a page to pinpoint which character we were following. But the setting was fascinating, the cultural details rich, and although I didn't feel a strong narrative drive as I'd expect in a murder mystery, I kept reading. Another narrative detail I found unfamiliar was the lack of a clearly defined ‘main character'. About a quarter of the way through, it seemed to me that Split itself was the main character. I don't know if this was the author's intent or not, and while I found Split interesting, I didn't connect with it emotionally like I would with a character who was a person. Overall, I found this novel refreshing, and would recommended to someone looking for a fresh take on a historical murder mystery.