Red Water

When Silva vanishes after a beach party in Croatia, she leaves behind more questions than answers. This haunting mystery from acclaimed author Jurica Pavičić transforms a young woman’s disappearance into a sweeping exploration of a nation’s turbulent soul.

The investigation reveals Silva as far more complex than the beautiful, cheeky girl her family thought they knew. As her devoted brother refuses to give up the search, the world around him fractures—communism falls, war erupts, and nearly three decades pass before the truth finally surfaces. What begins as a missing person case becomes an intimate portrait of survival, memory, and the secrets we bury in the rubble of history.

Pavičić has crafted something extraordinary here—a novel that works both as a gripping mystery and as a profound meditation on how personal tragedy intertwines with political upheaval. The five brutal years of the Yugoslav civil war provide a backdrop that’s never merely decorative; instead, the chaos of the era seeps into every page, every unanswered question.

The Financial Times calls it “a finely engineered, haunting novel that has been deservedly garlanded with awards,” while Kirkus praises it as “a brilliant cocktail of mystery and recent history, compellingly told.” The Times/Sunday Times named it among “the best crime fiction of 2025 so far,” celebrating Pavičić’s “outstanding” use of Silva’s story to document war’s lasting impact.

Perfect for readers who crave mysteries with depth and historical fiction with suspense.

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