Karolina and the Torn Curtain is the second book in this series. It is a light and easy cozy mystery read that can be read as a standalone.

I haven't read the first book yet had no problem getting into the story and familiarizing myself with the characters.

I like that there is a certain humor throughout the book which gives it a nice touch.

It gives a very good commentary on social, political, cultural and historical circumstances of the late 1800's in Poland. While I usually appreciate such comments as they help me to become better informed of the situation surrounding a story this time I felt it was more about social situation than the mystery.

I also found the language a bit stilted and old fashion, and while I expected it due to the historical aspect it was not as easy to read.
The story wasn't fluid it constantly jumped from one thing to the other.

The mystery was good, well established with several twists and turns to keep things interesting.
Characters are very realistic and believable and well drown out.
For those who like slow moving historical mysteries with lots of additional commentary this would be a good choice.

Zofia Turbotyńska is pulled into another investigation when her maid Karolina is murdered after abruptly leaving Zofia's employment. Zofia and her husband Ignacy are both upset, as they liked Karolina, while Francziska, their cook, lost a friend.
The lead investigator appears less zealous at carrying out the investigation than what Zofia thinks Karolina deserved, and really, Zofia just can’t help herself from asking questions. She keeps talking to people, looking for clues and reasons, insistent on finding Karolina’s murderer.
Franciszka is roped into the efforts, and we see Zofia bolstered by Franciska’s determination to do right by her friend. Zofia also has the support of the investigator, Klossowitz, who pooh-poohed Zofia's abilities and her tenaciousness at finding information (in the previous book).

This book was more fun than the first one. The first book spent a lot of time giving us a lot of background on Zofia: her concern for her husband's position at his university, their family's position in Kraków society, and Zofia's inability to keep a maid for any length of time. (This reminds me of 80s tv character Murphy Brown’s constantly changing personal assistants.)
In this installment, the authors open up Zofia's world, and her eyes, to some of the inequalities and problems in Kraków. What starts as a "simple" murder, becomes much more complicated and ugly, as Zofia talks to socialists (whom Ignacy detests, and before her investigation Zofia appears to, equally), brothel owners, criminals, and a doctor conducting sex research.
The case shakes Zofia's assumptions about the institutions she respects to the core, which was a really interesting turn to take with someone who has been status-obsessed and prickly about her privileges. I also liked the irony of how despite her denigration of women's education, Zofia is realizing that just minding her house is not enough for her, and delving into the puzzle of Karolina's death has given her something vital to do that captures her interest.
I picked up book one on a whim when it came out, and ended up really enjoying my time with Zofia. I really enjoyed this book, too, and look forward to more evolution and adventure for the determined Zofia Turbotyńska.

It might take you, like me, a bit to settle into this unusual import from Poland but give it a chance. Set in 1895 Cracow, its the tale of how Zofia, a wealthy woman, sets off to find out who killed her housemaid Karolina and left her on a riverbank. Well, former housemaid because the young woman, who Zofia thought was virtuous, had just resigned, which deeply annoys Zofia. She enlists her maid Francisczka to help her more or less troll the city for information about a man who seemed to be courting Karolina. Not certain that the police found the true villain, she keeps up her quest, entering places where "respectable" women aren't usually found. The knowledge she gains begins to change her mind and shape her thoughts about the men she knows and about what women are due. That sounds lofty but Zofia is not- she's a character with a quick wit, a bit of a snob, and a smart cookie. There evidently was a book that preceded this, which I missed, so it was a standalone for me and just fine at that. The language feels a bit ornate in spots but it has a rhythm that you can settle into. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Not a cozy but a historical mystery featuring a dynamic female protagonist in a setting that was new to me - a treat.

I already liked the first book in this series, but I think the second book is even better.

This book is more focused than the previous one on solving the mystery. In the first book, the daily life of the main character, Zofia Turbotyńska, and scenes from Cracow at the end of the 19th century, constituted a much larger part of the book. And although I find these inserts from everyday life interesting, such a balance between these two aspects works better for me. I also think that such a solution will be better suited to international readers who do not know the history and culture of Poland so well.

In this book, Turbotyńska is a bit different than in the previous one, and I think I like her more this way. There is of course no obvious inconsistency between her character in the two books, I just think she evolves as a character. In this book, we clearly see how her priorities and views change, and how her character traits that have so far been obscured by some others come forward. And the events in the epilogue may indicate that her views and character will undergo further changes. Uncompromising and inquisitive, not to say meddlesome, Turbotyńska is a memorable character who can be liked.

The mystery is also much bigger and more serious than in the first book. It turns out quite quickly that the case that Zofia became interested in may be related to organized crime and at the international level. The whole mystery is complicated, with several twists and very satisfying. Turbotyńska takes us on a journey through the nineteenth century lupanars, although this is certainly not a magical journey, but rather revealing the difficult fate of women in those times throughout Europe. In many ways, the story is quite dark.

I have also read the original Polish version of this book and I think the translation is done really well. But what else would you expect from the two professional translators who are the authors of this book (though the book was translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and not one of the authors). The language perfectly reflects the slightly lyrical and sometimes certainly ironic tone that this story has in Polish.

This is a book for everyone who likes amateur sleuths and historical mysteries. The more unique that the action is set on Polish lands in the Austrian partition, which many readers know very little about. However, this story touches on the subject of prostituting women and their abuse. These are not drastic scenes of violence, but if you are particularly sensitive to these subjects, this may not be the book for you.

It’s been three years since Zofia Turbotyńska solved her first case (see Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing). Since then, Zofia has settled back into domestic life. She still keeps up appearances between the great and the good of Kraków and trying to get her absent-minded professor of a husband a promotion at the university. That case is a real feather in Zofia’s cap, one that she’s not afraid to point out whenever relevant. Given her willingness to talk about her skills as a detective, it’s no surprise that she metaphorically elbows police and investigators out of the way when one of her maids is discovered dead at the beginning of Maryla Szymiczkowa’s* Karolina and the Torn Curtain. Antonia Lloyd-Jones does a beautiful job of translating this new entry in the series.

Karolina Szulc only recently handed in her notice at Peacock House when Zofia receives news that she has been found stabbed to death in an unsavory neighborhood. As soon as she learns about the murder, Zofia and her senior maid, the faithful Franciszka, leap into action. Franciszka searches Karolina’s old room while Zofia starts calling in markers at the local police station. It isn’t long before Zofia starts to put the pieces together—especially when the pair uncover information about a handsome man who made Karolina promises that were too good to be true.

The arc of a mystery plot usually follows a slow upward trajectory that starts to leap the closer we get to the big conclusion. The plot of Karolina and the Torn Curtain races at the beginning, before slowing down after an apparent suspect is cornered and shot by police. Zofia has doubts that grow the more she thinks about them. While the police are satisfied that they got the right guy, Zofia continues to ask questions. These questions take her into dangerous territory; she might be on the tracks of a large criminal conspiracy.

Early in Karolina and the Torn Curtain, Zofia has a brief discussion with a Mrs. Bujwid, a reformer who wants to help women and girls get an education. Zofia is initially annoyed by Mrs. Bujwid. She thinks the woman is reaching beyond her station and social status is very important to Zofia. (The third-person narrator frequently points this snobbery out for comic effect.) That conversation makes Zofia—and us, as readers—start to pay a lot more attention to the conversations of the men around her. These men are usually colleagues of her professor husband, so their discussions often include ludicrous “reasons” why women shouldn’t have more rights or more education. Zofia’s growing awareness of the discrimination around her and her increasing knowledge of the world of prostitution and trafficking in Kraków affect her. She becomes much less likely to assume that the authorities and her social betters have everything under control as the façade fades away.

Like Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing, Karolina and the Torn Curtain offers a vivid look into life at the end of the nineteenth century in Kraków. Zofia’s powers of observation take in faces, clothing, sounds, and smells as she whisks back and forth across the city, from posh addresses to neighborhoods well-bred women shouldn’t even know about. This book is historical fiction at its best.

Zofia Turbotyńska’s maid, Karolina, has gone missing, leaving the house short-staffed in the midst of Easter preparations. Zofia hears the news a body of a murdered woman has been found washed up from the Vistula River and soon discovers the victim to be the same maid who has disappeared. Zofia is shocked and horrified and immediately starts to investigate on her own and soon finds herself in the underbelly of Crakow society, quite far from her own high social standing as the wife of a university professor.

This murder mystery is a bit of Agatha Christie, a bit of cozy mystery, a bit of detective story, and quite a lot of history. The setting is 1895 Crakow, Poland, with a background of human trafficking of young women. The very patriarchal society of the time is reflected but the main character of Zofia delves into this territory and privately marks a way towards some women's rights by showing her own worth in helping to solve the crime.

One of the interesting aspects of this story that differs from so many is Zofia seemingly has helped solve the crime early in the book and thus carries on with the assumption that justice for Karolina has been served. A year or so later it is determined that perhaps the case hasn't been solved and she sets off again to investigate. I really like the way this shows the fallibility of our hero and everything does not fall neatly into place as expected.

I also find it interesting how Zofia is basically living a dual life of a socialite and a crime-solving sleuth. Her husband Ignacy has no idea of her investigation as it's all done behind the scenes. Ignacy has a very traditional view of women's roles and it might break him to find his wife taking on roles that he deems unsuitable. Zofia's character promotes the notion of women's rights without shouting it out. And I suspect due to societal restrictions it's very much how a woman of that time would have had to behave to avoid public downfall.

I really enjoyed this story although the Polish names might have slowed down my progress as I was trying to mentally pronounce them all. Overall I give this four stars.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Mariner books for sharing an advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

The book is set in late 19th century Poland so the setting alone is worth giving this book a try. The mystery of who murdered Karolina's maid, leads her deep into the male dominated world where as a woman she has to use all her imagination and cunning to make sure she gets heard. Recommended for readers who like mysteries set in unusual locations.

Although I really liked the main character, Zofia, and her intelligence and feistiness, I felt the male characters were loquacious and too long winded, with philosophic rants. The story takes place in Cracow, Poland in 1895, when Karolina, Zofia’s lady maid, is found murdered. Zofia becomes involved in the case as simple explanations doesn’t ring true to her. This is the second in a series, but I do t think I would read another. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As someone who liked the first book, Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing, Karolina and the Torn Curtain is far better.

Zofia's maid is brutally murdered. She helps the police catch the culprit, but when she begins to doubt the culprit's identity, she gets stonewalled.

I liked Zofia in the last book. She was unapologetically not nice and self-serving. When someone she knows is the murder victim, she starts caring about having the murderer brought to justice. Through her investigation, her empathy for other's plight grows as we are shown the ugly side of Poland in 1895. This made me eager for the next book to be translated.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Cracow 1895. Korolina ex-servant to Zofia Turbotynska has been murdered. With the help of her maid Franciszka she investigates.
Unfortunately the story, the characters or the writing style just couldn't keep my interest that much.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young 1890s Polish housewife sets out to solve the murder of her young servant. A bit didactic at times.

""An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime" (Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel laureate): when amateur sleuth and cunning socialite Zofia Turbotyńska’s beloved maid goes missing, she dives deep into Cracow’s web of crime, with only her trusted cook for company.

Cracow, 1895. Zofia and her maid Franciszka have their hands full organizing Easter festivities, especially with the household short one servant - where has the capable Karolina disappeared to?

Shortly after, Zofia hears that the body of a young woman, violated and stabbed, has washed up on a bank of the River Vistula. Domestic work can wait - Zofia must go investigate. Shockingly, the body turns out to be none other than Karolina. Working with the police, Zofia’s investigations take her deep into the city’s underbelly - a far cry from the socialite’s Cracow she’s familiar with. Desperate to unearth what happened to Karolina, though, she pushes her prejudice aside, immersing herself among prostitutes, gangsters, and duplicitous politicians to unravel a twisted tale of love and deceit."

I love this cover SO MUCH I would literally buy a poster of it and hand it on my wall!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have to admit that I started this book and then decided to abandon same because I had some difficulty getting into the style of writing used by the authors. However, I had a bothersome mind and decided to resume reading and dig deeper into this unique structure and subject. In 1895 Cracow, we find a young servant girl murdered and her mistress/employer Zofia Turbotynska intent on figuring out what happened to cause her death. Firstly, this book illustrates a period in history when women were considered glorified housekeepers and caretakers of their husbands and yet the amazing (and witty) Zofia is anything but. She may pretend or even think that society needs structure, and she acknowledges her place in society but the clever Zofia still goes out to investigate after making sure that cupboards are clean, and lunch is prepared for her husband when he comes home from his job as a professor. Secondly, the men in this novel are ignorant of a woman’s ability to decipher the nuances of the male species. They dismiss Zofia’s clearly clever skills of deduction. Her husband is ignorant of his wife’s sleuthing abilities because she’s way smarter than he is as evidenced by the fact that she eventually solves the murder. His cluelessness is a hoot. I would call Zofia Turbotynska to be somewhat of a “Cracow Christie” as she builds clue upon clue to unmask the murderer. This is a unique read but still a rather modern concept of men underestimating women, sexual slavery, corrupt police and politicians, and murder most foul. I liked the story although it does move slowly but I really enjoyed trying to figure out how to pronounce the names. Brawo! My thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC although my opinions and review are my own and without bias. @netgalley #netgalley #karolinaandthetorncurtain #poland #cracow #sleuth #mystery

Impressive piece of work by the authors, for their interspersal of historical occurrences and figures into their story line. The concept of using the Feminist movements and ideologies to enhance Zofia Turbotyńska's credibility was superb.

Aside from the excellent plot of the book, I enjoyed Zofia’s comical citations to Medieval knights.

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for e ARC of this book.

Elle Woods meets Agatha Christie in a vibrant picture of end of the 18th century Cracow.

Zofia is a society lady with a pampered existence whose life is disrupted by the tragic loss of her favorite maid. She takes it upon herself to uncover the true story behind her disappearance and finds herself at the center of a political intrigue with sordid reverberations where nobody seems to live up to their reputation. Except for Zofia’s own reputation for making the best plum preserve in town, that is.

What’s not to love about this book?

There is a perfect balance where the necessary tension of the plot coexists with a delightful wealth of detail that paints a picture of ordinary life in turn of the century Cracow – ranging from the carefully constructed passages on Zofia’s fashionable hats to descriptions of meals or references to historical monuments or festivities.

Zofia is a smart gal but the book itself is even smarter. Women’s rights, prostitution and other heavy-weight topics get thrown around in a way that adds depth to the plot and yet does not obscure the mood or interfere with the overarching playful tone of the story.

If we can take this layered construction as a working definition of high-quality entertainment, Karolina and the Torn Curtain definitely makes the mark as an instant guilty pleasure.

Maryla Szymiczkowa is the nom de plume of the partnership between writer Jacek Dehnel and historian Piotr Tarczyński. This book is the second of the currently four parts of the Zofia Turbotyńska series, and it could be read without having to read the first book. A detective story of its kind, it’s heavily influenced by the works of Agatha Christie. What makes this story rather different is the choice of the main character, Zofia Turbotyńska who’s a housewife coming from Cracow aristocrat family, wife of university professor Ignacy Turbotyński, and often spent her spare time hanging out with Cracow socialites. One day, one of her maids Karolina Schulz goes missing. Her remains were found in one of the banks of the Vistula River with obscure circumstances.

Determined to unravel the whole story of Karolina’s murder, Zofia did many things that finally exposed her into the hidden story of women trafficking in Cracow and most of all in the whole territory of Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. The involvement of the women trafficking didn’t stop in Galicia alone, but spanning to international networks at that time even to Constantinople, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. As a woman, Zofia’s power to uncover the mystery of Karolina’s death is tested in the whole story with various circumstances that turned against her, such as her limited exposure to knowledge that are mainly available limited to men to which Maryla could present unique ways of Zofia in countering all adversaries.

If you like the style of Wes Anderson’s films, both the visual and characterisation aspects, then you’ll like this book. This is the kind of novel which if the cover and metadata are removed will still give ways to know that we’re reading a story of Zofia Turbotyńska from the way the author provides a vivid description of the settings - in this case, Cracow in 1895 - also the way each character behave and dress. It’s as though the author is intuitively incorporating the auteur theory into the style, to create distinct imagery of Cracow which still paints the historical Cracow while also fitting it into the image of Cracow that was full of socialites in the last decade of the 19th century. You get chapter-like structure in this book which begins with short premises (kinda like how the narrator in The Royal Tenenbaums tells the story) which is interesting to explore further.

If you like Olga Tokarczuk’s works, this is also a nice opportunity to observe the treatment of her translator in another Polish author. Antonia Llyod-Jones has translated a few works by Olga such as Primeval and Other Times and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Which means that this book is being translated under the hand of someone who has brought a Polish Nobel laureate’s works into English. The words are just beautiful and feel natural enough to me. Numerous places in this story are rendered under their original names that were commonly used when Galicia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the timeline, such as Lemberg (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) and Laibach (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia) which adds an exotic taste to it, as though we’re being transported into 1895 Galicia.

If you are into any detective novels, then surely this book is also something not to be missed, especially if you are a fan of Agatha Christie. The way the author brings the story and presents plot twists is something to be appreciated. I find myself getting lost in facts at times, but there are always some ways for the author to reconnect me with the acquainted facts in the later part. Also, the case presented here is rather unique, because Zofia herself isn’t a police officer or a detective, which makes it a rather bold statement of woman’s emancipation at the dawning of the 20th century.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think that this book is my first of Polish literarture and it was such an adventure. I have to be honest it took me some time to get into the story due to the author's style and the cultural aspect of the story and mainly the names.
The story is in Cracow,1895, in the house of Mrs.Zofia Turbotynska a maid, Karolina, got missing then she is discovered dead after she had been raped. Zofia decides to investigate Karolina's murder after seeing that the local police was not doing a good job. With Zofia, we are introduced to the horrible world of white slave trafficking, brothels, pimps and prostitution. How girls are played by these bad people and find themselves being sold to brothels in Turkey or Brazil.
Zofia lives in a chauvinistic society where the woman is regarded as an inferior human being and a sexual object with no brain. I didn't enjoy this aspect of the story and I could not see the comic part of it either.

I got bored during my reading and sometimes I found it difficult to follow where it was going. The story got more interesting when Zofia started investigating by herself with the help of her other maid Franscisca. Her husband Ignacy is another story, he is absolutely naive and knows nothing about how much his wife is smart. We can say that Zofia has a double life that her husband has no idea about it.

It was such an interesting book that made me curious about this author's other books, this one is the second in Zofia's adventures in the crime world. She reminded me of Miss.Marple.

Fun, well plotted, entertaining, and a charming read. Well written and a very grand way to relax and curl up and enjoy a good book.

A quirky mystery translated from Polish. I found the story a bit convoluted and the focus on brothels and sex trafficking a bit out of keeping with the humorous writing style. But, the main character, Zofia, was an absurdly likeable sleuth who grew on me as she doggedly searched for the murderer of her house maid, and the setting, Krakow in the late 1890s, was interesting.

This was a big no for me.
Sadly the only thing that i really liked was the cover and that was it. I was just generally bored and felt meh about the characters, no one made me really care and the story felt... sometimes odd and bland?