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The Judge and His Hangman (Inspector Barlach 1) by Friedrich Durrenmatt and Joel Agee (translator) (view source)
Revision as of 15:03, 9 October 2020
, 15:03, 9 October 2020no edit summary
Unfortunately, the strongest sense of that comes with the intervention of a writer, leaving both cops to wonder whether they'd be in his next book. Hmmm… But the fact remains that that section, however annoying, archly 'different' and unnecessary, comes in between a host of short snappy scenes (we have over twenty chapters in these 120 pages), and a lot of them do what is very much the right thing as regards crime writing. By the end you've certainly found much that is very enjoyable. Characters that are not doing what you expect them to do – both in and out of regard to the genre norm, certain people having their strengths hidden from us, and a very pleasing briskness to the timeline all make this a very solid entertainment.
The scholar can pick over this, as they would do Durrenmatt's classic plays, and see this writing as being about the follies of man, that about something else, and a whole sort of literary emphasis. But knowing this publishing house, and their predilection for no-nonsense entertainment, preferably in short and sweet portions, I think we need not let that bother us ourselves. Yes, there is a look at the nature of man behind a lot of the events here, but so there should be in any crime story of note. But there should also be that fun element, the factor that we employ this genre for in the first place, and that is definitely on these pages. I eagerly await [[Suspicion (Inspector Barlach 2) by Friedrich Durrenmatt and Joel Agee (translator)|the sequel]].
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.