The End of Lieutenant Boruvka

Andrew Thomson is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of
Guelph.

The End of Lieutenant Boruvka is effective on two levels. The mysteries
the quiet policeman solves are solid detective fare, leading the reader
through a maze of clues, avoiding false trails, and presenting a
satisfying solution. More importantly, the book examines the
frustrations of a simple policeman faced with the inconsistencies of the
Czechslovakian system in the period surrounding the 1968 uprising.

Skvorecky came to Canada after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in
1968. With his wife, he operates a Czech-language printing house in
Toronto, printing literature that, until recently, was banned in his
native country. The book was translated by Wilson, who spent ten years
in Czechoslovakia before being expelled in 1977.

This book is the third in a series that follows the homicide detective
in his work for the Prague police. Boruvka is a good detective, but he
is sometimes troubled by the “harsh but just” punishment the
murderers receive. He is victim to “an irrestible urge to get at the
truth.” In this volume, this becomes increasingly hard to reconcile
with the events that surround the cases he investigates. Boruvka finds
himself assigned to a series of cases in which his solution is found to
be politically unacceptable. The system’s increasing double standards
and its emphasis on ideology at the expense of truth combine to force
Boruvka to question his role in the system.

The End of Lieutenant Boruvka is an excellent detective story, but an
even-more-effective examination of the individual under totalitarian
rule.