Review
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 TimesThe 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 - Daily Telegraph...this thriller is as noir as they get. Steeped in a rank air of cynicism and fear...Danusia Stock's translation is terse and gripping...this complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans, who will eagerly await the rest of Karjewski's Breslau quartet - Independent...reminiscent of Georg Grosz...Death In Breslau isn't just an exciting mystery, it's the story of lost Fatherland ... wonderful - GuardianKrajewski 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 TimesKrajewski relishes the period detail as takes us from bloody interrogation cells to Madame LeGoef's sweaty bordello A... Sex and sadism dominate A... 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. In this respect, Death in Breslau is strongly reminiscent of Alain Robbe-Grillet's Repetition A... What's haunting about Krajewski's book, however, is that the worst was yet to come - Independent on Sunday
Product Description
Breslau was a German city on the border of Czechoslovakia. It is now, since World War II, Wroclaw, in Poland. Marek Krajewski has written a quartet of novels which unfold the history of this exceptional city, standing on the faultline and crossroads of 20th century Europe. In Breslau 1933: the mutilated body of a young woman, an aristocrat, is found dead on a train. Scorpions writhe in her slashed stomach - a horrifying image that becomes crucial to the investigation. Inspector Eberhard Mock is called in to deal with the case, and is assigned an assistant, Herbert Anwaldt, an orphan.The investigation leads them deep into the city's dirty underbelly, where perverted aristocrats cavort with prostitutes, corrupt ministers torture confessions from lowly Jews and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and daggers. As Mock and Anwaldt unravel a mystery of ritual killing that dates back to the time of the Crusades, the elderly Mock and the young, fatherless Anwaldt become close. But the dark, occult aspect of this most macabre of cases, coupled with the heavy presence of Germany's secret police proves too much for Anwaldt's sanity. What makes Krajewski's story so uncommonly powerful is the stifling atmosphere he conjures of a city in the grip of the Gestapo.
