Sven Birkerts

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Joel Agee

This volume offers bracing new translations of two precursors to the modern detective novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, whose genre-bending mysteries recall the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet and anticipate the postmodern fictions of Paul Auster and other contemporary neo-noir novelists. Both mysteries follow Inspector Barlach as he moves through worlds in which the distinction between crime and justice seems to have vanished. In The Judge and His Hangman, Barlach forgoes the arrest of a murderer in order to manipulate him into killing another, more elusive criminal. And in Suspicion, Barlach pursues a former Nazi doctor by checking into his clinic with the hope of forcing him to reveal himself. The result is two thrillers that bring existential philosophy and the detective genre into dazzling convergence.

The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion

The Inspector Barlach Mysteries

Andrew John Kinney

As Robin has pointed out, this is noir with a slightly more refined, European flair. Inspector Barlach is a man facing terminal illness as he continues to solve crimes, make references to art, literature, and music and carry on intelligent conversations with his friends. While reading Dashiell Hammett, I often thought to myself, "How can a human being drink that much and still function?" Aside from some serious vodka drinking with a mysterious Russian Jew, Inspector Barlach is much more restrained in his vices than the 1930's-40's American noir protagonists. 

Barlach is frequently deep in thought about his life and work, in light of his impending demise, and he ponders whether anything in life has any purpose. As far as I can tell his answer is no, though he feels compelled to pursue criminals because they violate basic human contracts, and that offends his sense of justice. Barlach is Swiss, but German Swiss, and this line of thought is quite Germanic in my experience (I lived near Nurnberg several years). Barlach is so calm, so methodical, so undemonstrative; he is certainly not a Hammett character. This book puts me in mind of The Third Man, but set in Switzerland. And the twist at the end of the first book is in the didn't-see-that-coming category, which was satisfying.

Overall, these are two well-executed and enjoyable mysteries, and I liked the European ambience; I was reminded of small villages in Germany; I always loved the inevitable little Gasthaus found in all but the smallest towns, and there are scenes that take place in them or refer to them. The books are page-turners, and easy reads. They are curious books in many ways, and are the sort of thing that would not likely appear in the U.S., and I am glad I read them.

The Inspector Barlach Mysteries The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion

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