---
product_id: 53667801
title: "Lumen (Martin Bora)"
brand: "ben pastor"
price: "Rp586123"
currency: IDR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.id/products/53667801-lumen-martin-bora
store_origin: ID
region: Indonesia
---

# Lumen (Martin Bora)

**Brand:** ben pastor
**Price:** Rp586123
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Lumen (Martin Bora) by ben pastor
- **How much does it cost?** Rp586123 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.id](https://www.desertcart.id/products/53667801-lumen-martin-bora)

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## Description

Lumen (Martin Bora)

## Images

![Lumen (Martin Bora) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/619IKCZUhGL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Lumen
  

*by S***Z on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2011*

Set just after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, this is a well written, intelligent thriller.  Captain Martin Bora is a young officer who wants to make his mark, while being uncomfortable about many of the things he witnesses and also takes part in.  The author makes us both aware of Bora's complicity and yet also his humanity.  "His eyes burned and ached with smoke, and he wouldn't wipe them for fear of appearing moved, because he wasn't," as one passage puts it so well.  His troubled encounter with a previous piano teacher and his complaints about shootings leads to his superior office, Colonel Schenck, stating, "We're all in it.  If it's guilt, we're all guilty".When Bora first arrives in Poland, he is billeted with Retz, who is out to enjoy life and relishes the advantages of uniform.  He is also working with Colonel Hofer, who has been visiting an Abess, Mother Kazimierza, claimed to be a saint.  This leads to Bora visiting the convent with Hofer, where he comes into contact with Father Malecki, a priest and American citizen, who has been given the task by the Church of investigating the unofficial cult surrounding the Abess.  When Mother Kazimierza is shot, Father Malecki unwillingly has to help Bora investigate.  Was she a saint?  Was she involved in the underground or working with the Germans?Everything about this book works well, drawing you in and demanding to be picked up and read.  Bora is a very human character and you feel both for him and Father Malecki and the difficult positions both find themselves in.  Colonel Schenck, with his obsession about reproduction, and Retz and his complete selfishness, bring depth to the book.  Everyone has something to hide and even Bora and Malecki cannot be open with each other, even if investigating together.  I highly recommend this book and hope that more in the series will become available soon.  If you enjoy this novel (and you will!) you may also like 
  
The Warsaw Anagrams







  
  
     and 
  
Zoo Station







  
  
    .

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Excellent Debut of Wartime Mystery Series
  

*by B***L on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 May 2014*

The Martin Bora series will no doubt attract some comparisons with Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series and while there are some crossover elements to the two Ms.Pastors is I feel the more realistic and psychologically astute of the series. Kerr has transplanted an almost Chandleresque detective who happens to be German into a wartime setting whereas Martin Bora a serving Wehrmacht officer becomes a detective by default. He brings none of the traditional detective’s background to the cases he doggedly pursues instead relying on his intelligence and common sense.Fresh from service with Franco’s German contingent in Spain the newly married Martin Bora finds himself in Poland as the German army steamrolls over the unfortunate Poles. He is an intelligent and urbane man. He is a dedicated military man. While not a Nazi he wishes to do his duty and while not necessarily agreeing with the conduct of the war initially does nothing to even passively oppose it. He stands by as his men shoot animals of farmers suspected of resistance sympathies. He presides over petty acts such as ripping pro Polish hymns from a psalm book. While shocked to see his frail Jewish piano teacher in a work gang he does nothing. He is in short I feel an accurate representative of the officer class of the Wehrmacht who while the conduct of the war is disagreeable still colludes with it. The reasons for this collusion are many –in Bora’s case he might at this stage agree with Field Marshal Von Manstein’s statement that “Prussian Field Marshal’s don’t mutiny”.The murder of a Polish nun with so called mystical gifts has Martin ordered by his superiors to investigate lest the blame be attributed to the occupying forces and damage the unsteady truce between the occupiers and the Vatican. He is assisted in this by Father Maleki an American born priest who has been investigating the nun for the Vatican to assess how genuine her visions and stigmata are. The author has sly jokes in the nun’s future pronouncements as even an amateur student of World War Two will realise that what are viewed as outlandish by the characters will in fact come true. Issues of faith, belief and justice are stirred as Bora and Maleki butt heads while gradually coming to respect each other.The murder mystery and a subsequent diversion into Bora’s private investigation of the apparent suicide of his roommate are probably the weakest element of the book for me. The investigation is slow and methodical enlivened by the occasional flash of insight from Bora but for the crime fiction fan there is probably nothing too new here plot wise. That is not to say this that this part is uninteresting – far from it. For me however the real joys of this book are twofold –firstly watching the beginning of Bora’s belief in the right of his cause erode and his subsequent early attempts to do the right thing. He has a grisly encounter with an SS Action Group butchering prisoners in a wood and his subsequent attempts to bring the massacre to his superior’s attention put him very firmly on the SS radar as a man who may be in that dreaded phrase “politically unreliable”. The second area the book excels in is in the atmosphere the author creates. Details are excellent and an atmosphere of dread and paranoia infect the book. The hypocrisy of the German military are laid clear to see has German soldier rapists are ordered to be hung while down the road prisoners are shot, captives beaten and elderly Jews worked  to death.All in all an excellent series debut from Pastor. I was shocked to see this originally published in 1991 in Italian and taking over 20 years to get reissued in English. My only concern was that subsequent books wouldn’t match the debut but the author was only getting warmed up with this one and subsequent efforts are even better.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Disappointing on all sorts of levels
  

*by T***N on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2016*

This appeared at first sight to have all the right ingredients for an enjoyable read, combining detective/crime work and the early years of the Second World War. In reality, it didn't work out that well, and if I'm honest, was not very interesting. Not only was it such an interminably long process, investigating the death of the nun, with very little progress over pages and pages and pages. But I also had the feeling that the author wasn't that bothered about it; she seemed more interested in the actresses, the other German officers and the violence carried out by the SS and SD, which, in itself, is rather well-trodden ground - this book offers nothing particularly new, no new insights. Bora comes across in dribs and drabs; I never had a strong sense of who he was or what he was about, or found some of his actions totally justified (such as going to confession). I certainly didn't find this a riveting book - I actually struggled to get to the end, aware that it wouldn't really matter if I gave up.

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*Product available on Desertcart Indonesia*
*Store origin: ID*
*Last updated: 2026-01-25*