This is an entertaining read if you don't take it too seriously. It's fiction after all, and it's fun to see a couple of accountants having an exciting adventure for a change. We've been told that librarians can have fun; why not accountants? The writing isn't great, but it's acceptable.



Unfortunately, there is much that is so unrealistic in the story that it's almost humorous. Can you really imagine the daughter of the Chancellor of Germany running around in some of the most dangerous situations imaginable with no body guards! It's not clear that her father even knew where she was, and if he did, he's more concerned about two crazy American accountants than his daughter. Even if he and his daughter are alienated and he really doesn't care about her, he would still be very concerned about the possible damage to Germany and his term in office by having her kidnapped or killed.



There is a fundamental assumption in the plot that horrible things wouldn't go on in the world if people just knew about how horrible they are. Really? The facts are that most human beings choose evil, and if there is a sufficient market for any product, someone will supply it. Each and every one of us vote for the kind of world we want to live in every time we spend a dollar. Would the documentary film that Ian was willing to die for actually receive an enormous number of hits on the Internet? Yes, I'm confident that it would. Some people would just be curious; others would be satisfying their own prurient interests; some would actually be learning how they could go about accessing that same commodity. The film might even increase sales through providing free advertising, but would there be a hue and cry sufficient to put an end to violent organized crime? Absolutely not. Enough people have already demonstrated their desire for evil products to make them available on the market, and learning the conditions under which those products are supplied would have little or no impact on their availability. Even if good concerned people were able to bring down one organized group of criminals, it would simply be replaced by another, possibly an even worse one.



So, enjoy the excitement of the book, but read it like a fairy tale. There are few viable ideas here to improve our evil, fallen world. But, I actually enjoyed it, and it encouraged me to improve my knowledge of Eastern Europe. The book itself has relatively high moral standards. There's a lot of blood and gore, but the language is clean and the sex isn't explicit. Those reasons alone make it a worthwhile read.