THREE MORE DARK TALES FROM THE BALTIC

The Czar’s Madman Jaan Kross (1992) Baron Timotheus von Bock, an early 19th-century Estonian nobleman, is an idealist with faith in the equality of all men. Von Bock believes that Russia’s tsar, then ruler over Estonia, will listen when he tells him of the injustices in his realm. Far from listening, the tsar assumes von Bock is insane and has him incarcerated. This is an engrossing, complex novel by Estonia’s greatest 20th-century writer. The Visit of the Royal Physician Per Olov Enquist (2002) Sister to George III, Caroline Mathilde is married to Christian VII, the mentally unstable king of 1770s Denmark. The royal physician, Johann Friedrich Struensee, becomes her ally in the intrigues and infighting at court, and eventually her lover. In Enquist’s powerful evocation of a world in which the personal and the political intertwine, Struensee attempts to introduce reforms to the backward realm, but his enemies seize upon his relationship with Caroline to destroy him. A Visible Darkness Michael Gregorio (2010) Hanno Stiffeniis, former pupil of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, is a Prussian magistrate during the Napoleonic era. He is summoned to the Baltic coast where the body of a young woman, naked and mutilated, has been found. As more women who work gathering amber are murdered, Stiffeniis must use all his skills to track down the killer. Gregorio combines a cleverly twisting plot with rich historical detail in an absorbing crime novel.