Ed Gaffney

Empty Boxcars tells the amazing story of the survival of over 50000 Jews in World War II and the mass murder of 11393 Jews from territories under Bulgarian control in Greece and Macedonia. The plot to murder all European Jews was marked 'top secret' but was brazenly public. Footage of the trains renders the crime visible. When the plot is exposed, Bulgarians from many walks of life, church leaders and labor leaders, lawyers and doctors, rose up in protest. Would we risk our lives to save someone in deep trouble? These courageous Bulgarians encourages us to think we must, and so we can. (fonte: imdb)… (meer)

In Israele, negli ultimi anni, monumenti e foreste sono stati dedicati al re Boris di Bulgaria e a molti uomini del suo governo negli anni della seconda guerra mondiale, col motivo che tutti questi, riconosciuti spesso anche come giusti tra le nazioni dallo Yad Vashem di Gerusalemme, sono stati in prima fila nel difendere e salvare gli ebrei Bulgari dalle deportazioni in Polonia nel 1943. Tuttavia, questi monumenti non raccontano l'altra faccia della verità: quella dei circa 11000 ebrei delle zone della Bulgaria annesse al terzo reich e deportati a Treblinka nel 1943 anche con l'assenso stesso delle autorità politiche Bulgare. Il documentario racconta il trionfo e la tragedia della risposta della Bulgaria alla "Soluzione finale" durante la seconda guerra mondiale, negli anni 1940-1943… (meer)

In this 3rd book by Ed Gaffney, defense attorneys Zach Wilson and Terry Tallach have been appointed to handle the request for a hearing for re-trial of a convicted serial killer. Despite the fact that the convicted killer has been in prison for 20 years, it appears that the "Springfield Shooter" has become active again. Interpersonal entanglements abound, since Zach's father, now a federal judge, was the defense attorney at the original trial, and Terry is a personal friend of the detective handling the current investigations. We also meet a former author/professor who had been under suspicion for the original crimes and briefly arrested, and his daughter who appears to be a target of the current killer, as well as several candidates for the "bad guy".

I had a little trouble at first getting used to the several different styles of chapters, one of which is numbered normally, one is a series of flash-forwards (or real time and the rest of the book is flash-back) which count down a period of 45 seconds over the course of the entire book, and another that is a set of insights into the killer's thoughts and actions. There are quite a lot of characters in this book, and it is easy to get a little confused if careful attention is not given. The relationship between all these characters becomes a little convoluted, but is explained in the end. I don't remember being given the critical information in the story that would have allowed me to solve the mystery on my own (a definite weakness in my opinion), but it might have just been lost in the confusion.

Overall, I liked this book. I thought it was a good story with lots of satisfying twists and turns. I'm not so fond of the author's habit of jumping from scene to scene and revealing only bits and pieces of information at a time. I guess he's trying to keep the pace fast and the reader on the hook, but I prefer to see the evidence as the investigator sees it. I don't want the good guys keeping secrets from me. As far as recommendations - this is an easy and entertaining read, but I can't imagine it being anyone's favorite book.… (meer)