Kirkus Review

Land of Broken Toys: Kosovo received a nice book review on Kirkus. I am hoping that this will increase visibility and sales. I cut-and-pasted the text and the link. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-kell-mahoney/the-land-of-broken-toys/

BOOK REVIEW
In Mahoney’s debut novel, a New York City cop embarks on a United Nations mission in war-torn Kosovo in the early aughts.
Following family tradition, NYPD officer JB Byrne aims to be a plainclothes detective. But a couple of crucial mistakes, like a body disappearing from a crime scene he was babysitting, convinces him he’s not investigator material. He falls back on his other passion: chocolate. Opening his own chocolate store requires a stake, and he determines that his best
money-making option is a year-long UN mission in Kosovo. He arrives in September of 2000, after the country’s devastating late-’90s war, and takes on the position of field-training officer. While on patrol, he has his first run-in with Ardian Gashi, a former schoolteacher who’d only reluctantly joined the Kosovo Liberation Army to fight Serbian forces. Gashi had led a KLA hit squad, and now, despite the KLA’s post-war dissolution, continues to head a death-dealing splinter group. JB may have come for the easy paycheck, but he considers helping the UN investigation team take down Gashi (“whatever it takes”). Mahoney’s brisk tale shines an illuminating spotlight on both JB and Gashi; JB doesn’t quite
get the relatively calm Kosovo assignment he hoped for, and Gashi primarily takes part in the KLA to ensure his younger brother stays away from combat. The characters shine in lighter moments, too—JB visits Switzerland mostly for the chocolate, and his detective brother, Kevin, can’t seem to remember that JB is in Kosovo, not Bosnia. The author vividly depicts Kosovo in 2000-2001, describing an icy, “bitterly cold” January and lingering signs of destruction in the wake of
NATO bombings. While the action never takes over the plot, there are tense, explosive turns (one involving a bazooka) and an effective buildup to JB’s faceoff against Gashi.
A taut, character-driven story of finding purpose and resolve in an unlikely place.