/ Belgrade, 3 April 2025 / A Belgrade night, the cinema hall at Ušće. The lights were dimmed, and the only thing breaking the silence was the flicker of a short film on screen. Though officially billed as a book promotion for Lazar Jovanović’s new novel, the atmosphere felt different — the hall itself became a stage, and the mood distinctly cinematic. Mystery announced itself.
Lazar Jovanović’s new novel, The Raven Paradox, was presented to a large audience in Belgrade, and will next appear before readers in the author’s hometown of Kraljevo, on 12 April, at the “Kvart” cinema. This is the second novel from the experienced police inspector and young writer, published in collaboration with Službeni Glasnik and already available in bookshops across the country.
When we spoke with the author following his debut novel The Code: Reiss, we introduced him to our readers as “a policeman by day, and a writer by night.”
The plot of The Raven Paradox unfolds in Belgrade, where Jovanović once again shows his flair for turning historical layers into the backdrop of a mystery.
While Code: Reiss was seeded by the figure of Archibald Reiss, The Raven Paradox spins a classic thriller linking Freemasonry and the royal Karađorđević family, with particular focus on King Alexander.
Speaking about the historical grounding of the novel, Professor Ivana Krstić Mistidželović — who also served as inspiration for the character of Professor Vita Ivanović — said:
“I want to highlight how deeply The Raven Paradox is rooted in historical fact. Perhaps the best example is the character of King Alexander himself, whose life — and above all, his death — remains, nearly a century later, a subject of enduring interest and debate among historians, lawyers, political scientists and mystics alike.
The novel portrays lesser-known, even entirely unknown details about this intriguing figure, along with Masonic symbols woven skilfully into the narrative. The author ties everything together with the fact that many members of the Karađorđević family, including King Alexander I and the fictional Prince Nikola Karađorđević, were themselves Freemasons.”
Editor Miodrag Mladenović of Službeni Glasnik did not hide the disturbing strength of the text:
“Some might call this a book launch. But I would say tonight we’re witnessing a trace.
This isn’t just a story — it’s an echo. Someone’s fear, someone’s unspoken thought, someone’s final ‘goodbye’ that never made it through. This isn’t a novel about death. It’s a novel about what remains once death has passed: a darkened room, a phone ringing into silence, a letter that will never be read. And when you close the final page, you may think you’ve understood it all. But you’d be wrong. There are books that don’t end when you finish them. They begin to follow you only then.”
Author Lazar Jovanović then addressed the audience, revealing that writing the novel “wasn’t merely an act of storytelling.”
“It was a kind of journey through shadows — both others’ and my own — through the hidden corridors of the human soul. This novel carries the weight of every sleepless night, every unwritten word that haunted me until it finally found peace on the page.
It was a battle with doubt, with uncertainty, with the relentless question: will I ever be able to tell this story the way I need to? It’s a mistake to think writers write just because they want to. At some point, we simply must. Until then, we’re not even sure what to do with all the words and thoughts chasing us — because none of it truly belongs to us.
Some will say we were lucky. Others will say they couldn’t do it. And we? We just want what the early hours and raw emotions create to keep breathing.”
In line with the raven paradox, this second book didn’t really need to exist to prove the author’s talent — and yet, here it is. Like a suspect who returns to the scene of the crime. And now it’s clear: someone here is writing seriously good fiction.
