Press & Reviews » Ben Pastor

Read reviews about our gripping crime fiction, thrillers and mysteries, detective books, crime stories and page-turning books.

Ben Pastor - The Venus of Salo

Reviews Venus of Salo

 “My book of the month is Ben Pastor’s The Venus of Salò. A triumph as a novel and a murder story.” The Critic
Ben Pastor - The Horseman's Song

Essay about The Martin Bora series in the LRB

LINK to an excellent essay in the 4 August London Review of Books. This is a major and insightful article celebrating the outstanding literary mystery series by Ben Pastor featuring her larger-than-life character, Martin Bora.
Ben Pastor - The Night of Shooting Stars

Night of Shooting Stars Reviews

Written in Pastor's inimitable style, the tense and dramatic atmosphere of Berlin is vividly recounted: senior army officers clustered in hotel bars and watchful of Bora.  Tension is increased through the character of the police officer assigned to work with Bora but whom we are never confident is on his side.  An unexpected denouement awaits the reader. Thrilling."Journal Law Society Scotland
Ben Pastor - The Horseman's Song

Reviews Horseman's Song

Publishers Weekly Starred Review: Set in 1937, Pastor’s outstanding sixth mystery featuring German investigator Martin Bora (after 2017’s The Road to Ithaca) makes effective use of the death of Federico García Lorca, the celebrated poet, during the Spanish Civil War… Pastor does an excellent job of creating a back-story for her lead that fits in well with the previous books. 

Midwestern Book Review: An expertly crafted mystery by a master of the genre, that is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.95), "The Horseman's Song" is an especially recommended addition to community library Mystery/Suspense collections. Also very highly recommended for dedicated mystery buffs are the other novels by Ben Pastor that feature the character of Martin Bora. 

NB Literary Magazine: An accomplished historical thriller set in Spain in 1937. This novel is confidently plotted and the tempo is judged to perfection… a thoughtful intelligent thriller that plays with a historical mystery in a manner respectful of the known facts. Documents released in 2015 appear to verify the claim that the Grenada fascists killed García Lorca in 1936, but his body has never been found. 

Foreword Reviews: Pastor weaves a poignant, convincing portrait of life during wartime. Bora himself is a compelling protagonist, erudite enough to recite Aristotle to himself while repelling an ambush and innocent enough to fall for a local lass who changes his perspective on love.

 

Ben Pastor - The Road to Ithaca

Road to Ithaca Reviews

...Philip Kerr fans will still find this depiction of an honest German cop working under adverse wartime circumstances intriguing... 

 

Ben Pastor - Tin Sky

Reviews for Tin Sky by Ben Pastor

‘STARRED REVIEW PW .Set in the spring of 1943, Pastor's excellent fourth mystery featuring Maj. Martin Bora (after 2014's Dark Song of Blood) takes the German army counterintelligence officer to... Read More
Ben Pastor - A Dark Song of Blood

Reviews for A Dark Song of Blood by Ben Pastor

Pastor's atmospheric third Martin Bora mystery (after 2012's Liar Moon) finds the German counterintelligence officer in Rome in January 1944. There Bora teams with Insp. Sandro Guidi of the Italian... Read More
Ben Pastor - Liar Moon

Reviews for Liar Moon by Ben Pastor

'Originally published in 2001, this is the first edition of Liar Moon available in this country, and the second in the Martin Bora detective series. Aristocrat Bora is a Major... Read More
Ben Pastor - Lumen

Reviews for Lumen by Ben Pastor

'And don't miss: LUMEN by Ben Pastor. When an abbess thought to have supernatural powers is murdered in Nazi-occupied Cracow, the Wehrmacht captain's investigation is complicated by his compatriots' cruelty... Read More