This was incredibly good! I could see it being picked up by some book clubs for sure. Highly recommend from me!

3.5 rounded up
Unusual story but enjoyable. Took a bit to get into it. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Read my full review on <a href="https://rosepointpublishing.com/2023/08/08/split-by-alida-bremer-bookreview-tuesdaybookblog/"<a> Rosepoint Publishing.</a>

Set in 1936 in Split on the Adriatic, a tourist mecca, the mood is one of caution. There are widespread rumors of fascists afoot and now there is a German Reich film crew scouting the town. The political climate is tenuous, opposing factions at odds. And in the middle of it, a body is found in the port.

Superintendent Mario Bulat begins an investigation with marginal characters on each side dueling against an influx of refugees fleeing the obvious hostile advances. His investigation repeatedly takes second chair to the increasing tensions within the Yugoslavian community.

I enjoyed the references to the local sites, remembered many of the words, stumbled over names, and heard in my mind’s ear the animated, often heated and spirited discussions we heard while there. It was like a visit back to Croatia and our immersion into the culture. The characters are varied and colorful.

Not so much of a murder investigation as a study of the time and place facing yet another conflict so quickly after the shaky resolution of the last. Interesting, probably more so for those who have had a personal introduction to the people and the history—but it could be rather slow—the mystery getting lost in the political upheaval.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

This was a very unusual read for me. I was not interested in the mystery plot line; however, the historical and cultural commentary was one of the most unique and interesting ones I've seen in the historical fiction genre.
I loved the settings and descriptions of food and just the everyday lives of the Split residents.
Overall, if you want a good setting and to learn about the history of Split this book would work for you. Reading it during summer was the best decision.

The perfect book to take you on a espionage journey through time. With action packed mystery and romance.

3 ⭐️

Split is a historical murder mystery set in Croatia with WWII in the horizon. We follow multiple character and an investigation into a murder. There was so much happening throughout the novel that it was a little hard to follow or perhaps because this was a translation of the original work. What I liked about this book is the setting, many books that I read are set in either the UK or the US. I do believe this is my first Croatia set book!

This will be a great read for anyone interested in the WWII era.

This was not my cup of tea but it might be for others. I don’t like the writing style. The author didn’t “hook” me in right away and that’s a dealbreaker for me.

Nazis, spies, romance, and murder collide in prewar eastern Europe in a mesmerizing historical novel

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this review copy

Historical ficiton novel set in the port city of Split in the 1930s. So picturesque that German film crews regularly decend upon the village. In stark contrast to the regular beauty of the port, a body is found entangled in fishing nets. This novel is rich in characters so there is a plethora of suspects. Multiple conflicts of police vs locals vs tourists vs Germans lends to an interesting narrative to solve the murder.

Special mention to the character list and map at the beginning.

I loved the detailed descriptions of food that set the scenes, very evocative imagery. The entwined complex politics of Europe in the 1930s also featured heavily. The prose flowed really well and was a pleasant read.

Mich hat hier das Cover gecatched, und der Klappentext klang gut – musste ich lesen. Und jetzt mein persönlicher Knaller: stellte sich doch raus, dass „Split“ die englische Übersetzung eines deutschen Romans ist. Das habe ich jetzt echt clever gemacht, *lol*. Ich habe dann die deutsche Ausgabe gegoogelt; unter dem Titel „Träume und Kulissen“ ist das Buch bei Jung und Jung vor 2 Jahren erschienen ( 1. Edition / 16. Juli 2021). Wobei: der Verlag sagt mir nichts, und sowohl Cover als auch Titel sind mir nie aufgefallen. Von daher hat man bei der internationalen Fassung ein paar Dinge besser gemacht, und ich hoffe, das Buch kriegt im neuen Design auch mehr Aufmerksamkeit. die hat dieses Buch nämlich definitiv verdient.
Also, nun aber kurz zum Inhalt auf Deutsch: wir sind im Jahre 1936 in Split, dalmatische, sprich kroatische Hafenstadt im damaligen Königreich Jugoslawien. Die Stadt ist bevölkert von Italienern, Kroaten, Serben, Juden, arm und reich, alt und jung, und man hat das Gefühl, in einer buntgemischten mediterranen Mini-Metropole zu sein. Der zweite Weltkrieg lässt schon langsam seine Schatten auf Europa fallen, und in Split tummeln sich in diesem heißen Sommer diverse deutsche Filmcrews, von denen die eine Hälfte der Mitglieder der neuen nationalsozialistischen Partei angehören und die andere Hälfte froh ist, dem Deutschen Reich zumindest für ein paar Wochen den Rücken kehren zu können….in Split treffen Faschisten diverser Nationalitäten auf Schmuggler, und Spione gibt es überall. Und inmitten all dessen passiert ein Mord. Und zwar schon ganz am Anfang – gehörte das Opfer zu den lokalen Freimaurern? Die habe ich in meiner Aufzählung gerade vergessen, die mischen ja auch noch mit, ganz top-secret. Ein paar Tage später gibt’s eine weitere Leiche, die im Hafen aufgefunden wird – die Polizei hat also alle Hände voll zu tun. Mario Bulat, Hauptermittler, hat mehr als genug Verdächtige, und kann niemandem vertrauen.
Mein Leseeindruck: die Autorin hat es hier für mich wunderbar geschafft, die Stimmung und Atmosphäre einzufangen. Die letzten noch halbwegs heilen Vorkriegsjahre in einer jugoslawischen traditionsreichen Hafenstadt, ein Melting-pot der Nationen, ein Vielvölkergewimmel und mittendrin die Mordermittlungen. Ein absolut gelungenes Gesellschafts- und Zeitportrait. Das hat mich gefesselt, das war gut, das war atmosphärisch dicht.
Was ich nicht so toll fand, und wo mich die Autorin dann auch ein wenig verloren hat, waren die -zig Protagonisten, von denen keiner in meinen Augen ein Hauptdarsteller war. Wir hatten echt unglaublich viele Leute, unglaublich viele kleine Sub-plots, aber irgendwie gab es keinen Held, keine Heldin, mit der man durchgängig hätte mitfiebern können. Die Protas waren gefühlt alle gleichwertig. Finde ich für eine Doku okay, aber für einen Roman fehlt mir da was.
Was durchgängig für mich rüberkam war die Liebenserklärung an die Stadt. Split muss toll sein. Ein weiterer Ort für meine Reise-Bucketliste 😊.
Geschrieben ist der Roman sehr gefällig und flüssig, wobei ich ja nur die Übersetzung beurteilen kann. Ha, und hier ist ein mittelgroßer Brüller passiert; ich habe mir leider die Stelle nicht markiert, aber ich bin beim Lesen echt drüber gestolpert: irgendwann geht’s darum, dass irgendwelche Leute keine Kirschen essen sollten. Im deutschen war das 100%ig die Redewendung, dass mit jemand nicht gut Kirschen essen ist (mit den Deutschen zum Beispiel, hahaha), und dann ist im englischen tatsächlich „cherry eating“ draus geworden. Also Augen auf beim Übersetzen, eine blumige Redewendung aus der einen in die andere Sprache zu übertragen, klappt nicht immer….! „It‘s best not tot angle with someone“ wäre mein Vorschlag hier gewesen….
Ich komme mal zu einem Fazit, das Buch hat mir mit einigen Abzügen gut gefallen, und ich könnte mir vorstellen, dass das eine coole Verfilmung geben könnte. Traumhafte historische und sommerliche Kulisse, Spannende Zeiten, Kapitalverbrechen – das ist vielversprechend!
Herzlichen Dank an Netgalley für das Rezensionsexemplar!

Split is a historical murder mystery set in Croatia when Europe was on the cusp of WWll. There was a lot of political unrest throughout the novel, German Communists, movie makers, and more that made it hard for me to follow the plot and keep from being confused about who the characters were. Still, I liked trying to keep up with Mario Bulat's investigation of the murder. Thanks to author Alida Bremer, Amazon Crossings, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The story is set in Split, Croatia in 1936. A very intriguing and interesting storyline, but unfortunately not a great read for myself. I found the story a little slow and confusing at times, even though the plot was interesting. The story included murder, spies and smugglers.

This book is set in 1936 Split, Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia. Croatia is now an independent country.
This book is a work of fiction, but some of the events and people are based on real people and events. The city of Split is a hotbed of spies, Jewish refugees escaping antisemitism in Germany, and Italian fascists who want to make Split part of Italy.
Into to this mix a body is found and police Superintendent Mario Bulat must find out who killed the dead man. He does put together who the probable killer is, but is unable to arrest the killer.
The author gives enough clues so the reader knows who the killer is about 2/3rds the way in. I enjoyed this book for the descriptions of the characters, the food, the plants, and the scenery. The translation is excellent. I rate it 4 stars
Thanks to Amazon Crossing for sending me this eARC through NetGalley. #Split #NetGalley

Split is a complex interesting novel with a good setting. The imagery takes you away. However, it is a very slow read. The characters could also use some more development.

The story takes place in Split, a costal town in Italy pre-World War II where everyone and their mother live: Freemason, fleeing Jews, a bunch of spies, and I guess some random native as well.

At the first glance, you might be wandering, what is the logic of all this? Well, I haven’t found it either BUT I have to say that it is a well written story and you can feel the colors of this Mediterranean town…until a dead body shows up (on a random day) on the beach…and basically everyone is a suspect!

I appreciated the rollercoaster of emotions throughout the book: from love affairs to lost friendship, one can asked themselves if this will wrap up nicely at the end.

The town set in Croatia, is on the edge because WWII is on their doorsteps. Set on the Adriatic sea, the town is caught between the Nazis and the Mussolini's Italians. The mystery starts with a body found in some fishing nets. This historical mystery SLOWLY unfolds through out the story. There really isn't a main character per say. In fact, I kept getting confused as to who the characters where which caused me to have to go back and forth in the story.

Honestly I didn't love this book. On one hand it was interesting because it was on an area of the world I don't know much about but on the other hand I found it slow and hard to follow. It isn't a book I would read again.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book in exchange for my honest review. The opinions are my own.

I was interested in this book because of the setting, but I wasn't sure about the plot because it seems like a murder mystery, which I usually don't care for. Split was a murder mystery in a way, but not really in the traditional sense. This book takes place over a week in Split, starting with characters finding the body of a local man. We have such an interesting cast of characters, including a German film crew, communists, Italian fascists, Freemasons and more. It was interesting to read about this very precarious time period, and the slow murder investigation that is happening. It's also interesting to read about what was happening in Split at the time.

On the other hand, this book felt so long for a 250 page book. There are so many characters I often lost track of who was who and what group they were part of. There is a list of characters in the beginning of the book but it's troublesome to flip back and forth to check who these characters were. Also, I don't want to spoil the ending, but it wasn't satisfying for me. I guess it was realistic but I'm bummed out now.

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.

I've read many WWll historical fiction books, but never one set in Croatia. I loved being able to look at this event through a new perspective. Split had been on my travel bucket list for a while, and the imagery in this book was beautiful. The mystery was engaging and kept me hooked the whole time. There was some romance, but not a lot, which I liked in this particular story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction mysteries or is interested in learning more about Croatia.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book for my honest review.

"Split" by Alida Bremer (Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp-Translation) was an interesting historical fiction/murder mystery novel. Full of politics, current events of pre-WWII time at the region, prejudice, as well as romantic and textural depictions of day-to-day living and cuisine at that city. Told in a romantic/nostalgic voice, while painting a vivid picture for the reader. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.