From Publishers Weekly
In the first English translation of a European cult classic originally published in Germany in 1936, the third in Glauser's absurdist Studer mystery series (after
In Matto's Realm), Swiss police Sgt. Jacob Studer investigates two questionable deaths in Bern and Basel—both by gas leaks, both victims elderly women once married to the same man. Clues vanish while suspects disappear and acquire different identities. Studer chases a priest, Father Matthias, brother of the dead women's late husband, who may or may not have been an oil company geologist. Lovely Marie may be niece, daughter, secretary or lover to Matthias or the geologist. At a French Foreign Legion post in Morocco, Studer eventually finds the answers, which seem so simple (or are they?), to this hallucinatory, morally ambiguous case. Glauser, the namesake for the German equivalent of our Edgar Award, was a schizophrenic and drug addict who spent much of his life in mental institutions and prisons. His books, although written in a straightforward style, reveal the fine line between sanity and madness.
(Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
First published serially in German in 1937, the third Sergeant Studer mystery released by Bitter Lemon touches on themes that still resonate today--a fight over a distant oil field prized by Shell and Standard, corrupt colonial outposts, missionaries trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. But these are only subtexts to a double-murder investigation commenced by Studer in droll, even muted, madcap style. After meeting an improbable priest in Paris who spouts an even-less-probable story about a clairvoyant corporal in the French Foreign Legion, Studer returns to his home base of Switzerland to find two elderly sisters gassed in Bern and Basel--just as foretold. Smitten by the priest's supposed niece, Studer (with only a minor assist from his long-suffering wife) plows through an array of hidden identities, coded messages, and nefarious tricks to crack the case. Glauser's gift for physical description ("She had a particular way of looking at people: not quite searching, more astonished--a calmly astonished look you could call it.") brings an already lively story even further to life.
Frank SennettCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Thumbprint is a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a period which fans will regard as the golden age of crime fiction." The Sunday Telegraph "Makes Mankell look skittish. Thumbprint is a genuine curiosity that compares to the dank poetry of Simenon and reveals the enormous debt owed by Durenmatt, Switzerland's most famous crime writer, for whom this should be seen as a template." The Guardian. "In Matto's Realm features the dour Sergeant Studer, a Swiss Maigret albeit with a strong sense of the absurd. The way in which life in the sinister walls mirrors the chaos outside underlies a despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened at regular intervals with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation and its laconic detective have not aged one iota. Who said the past never changes." The Guardian "Glauser was among the best European crime writers of the inter-war years. In Matto's Realm is a dark mystery set in a lunatic asylum follows a labyrinthine plot where the edges between reality and fantasy are blurred. The detail, place and sinister characters are so intelligently sculpted that the sense of foreboding is palpable." Glasgow Herald"
Book Description
Praise for Friedrich Glauser’s other Sergeant Studer novels:
“Thumbprint is a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a period which fans will regard as the golden age of crime fiction.”—The Sunday Telegraph
“In Matto’s Realm is both a compelling mystery and an illuminating, finely wrought mainstream novel.”—Publishers Weekly
“A despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation of In Matto’s Realm and its laconic detective have not aged one iota.”—Guardian
“With good reason, the German-language prize for detective fiction is named after Glauser. . . . He has Simenon’s ability to turn a stereotype into a person, and the moral complexity to appeal to justice over the head of police procedure.”—The Times Literary Supplement
When two women are “accidentally” killed by gas leaks, Sergeant Studer investigates the thinly disguised double murder in Bern and Basel. The trail leads to a geologist dead from a tropical fever in a Moroccan Foreign Legion post and a murky oil deal involving rapacious politicians and their henchmen. With the help of a hashish-induced dream and the common sense of his stay-at-home wife, Studer solves the multiple riddles on offer. But assigning guilt remains an elusive affair.
The third in the Sergeant Studer series.
About the Author
Diagnosed a schizophrenic, addicted to morphine and opium, Glauser spent the greater part of his life in psychiatric wards, insane asylums and prison. His Sergeant Studer novels have ensured his place as a cult figure in Europe. Mike Mitchell is a well-known translator of German works and the winner of a number of literary prizes. He has translated the other Studer novels as well.
