Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2012
256 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate.
But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence.
And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades...
"Starred Review. This intelligent, atmospheric crime novel, which flashes forward to such events as the 1945 Dresden firebombing and the beginnings of the cold war, possesses a distinctly European, Kafkaesque sensibility." - Publishers Weekly
"As noir as they get. This complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans, who will eagerly await the rest of Krajewski's Breslau quartet." - The Independent (UK)
"Atmosphere and piquant period detail saturate the pages, and push these books into the upper echelons of literary crime ... Krajewski's lacerating narrative performs the key function of the skilful novelist: providing an entree into a world far from our own." - The Times (UK)
"Krajewski has Mankell's sharp eye for detail, but he has, too, a more sophisticated frame of reference that may intrigue fans of Umberto Eco and Boris Akunin...Death In Breslau is a stylish, intelligent and original addition to the canon." - Financial Times (UK)
"Reminiscent of Georg Grosz...Death In Breslau isn't just an exciting mystery, it's the story of lost Fatherland...wonderful." - The Guardian (UK)
"The city of Breslau is as much a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it...This addictive soup has an air of the burlesque about it." - The Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Krajewski relishes the period detail as takes us from bloody interrogation cells to Madame LeGoef's sweaty bordello ... above all you get the sense that Krajewski is enjoying teasing and tormenting us with numerous examples of the violent coming together of eroticism and the body-politic." - Independent on Sunday (UK)
This information about Death in Breslau was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marek Krajewski is an award-winning Polish crime writer and linguist. He is best known for his series of five Chandleresque novels set in pre-war Wroclaw (which was, at the time, Breslau) with the policeman Eberhard Mock as the protagonist. These novels have been translated into 14 languages: English, French, German, and Italian, among others.
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