The End of the World in Breslau (Inspector Mock Investigation) - Softcover

Krajewski, Marek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612192742 ISBN 13: 9781612192741

Publisher: Melville House Pub, 2013

Synopsis

The second installment in the darkly intelligent series that The Independent called "As noir as they get."

1927, Breslau, Poland: Two elaborate and sadistic murders are discovered within days of each other. The body of an unknown musician, bound and gagged, is found behind a false wall in a shoemaker's workshop. The victim had been sealed in alive. Elsewhere in the city, the horrifically mutilated body of a locksmith is found. Next to each victim is a torn-out calendar page, with the day of the death marked in blood. Nothing else seems to connect the cases.

It falls to Criminal Councillor Eberhard Mock to solve the case, the mystery taking him still further into the Breslau underworld he knows only too well. Meanwhile, his hard-drinking nocturnal habits soon threaten his volatile marriage, and prompt some strange behavior from his wife ... and before long, Mock and his team will be investigating not only two of the grisliest murders in the city's history, but the councillor's own wife.

From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

Review

"Fans of Simenon's stand-alone noirs will find much to like." --Publishers Weekly

"Krajewski focuses brilliantly on Mock's psychological dissolution, but he also continues to offer fascinating glimpses of the city... bizarre and insightful." --ALA Booklist (starred review)

Praise for Death in Breslau

"As noir as they get. This complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans." --The Independent

"The city of Breslau is as much a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it ... Addictive ... " --The Daily Telegraph

"A stylish, intelligent and original addition to the canon." --The Financial Times

"Krajewski carved out a new niche, Polish noir. And what a neat niche it is: sweaty with decadent aristocrats, fleshy with prostitutes and pimps and corpulent with corpses ... a bawdy, black-humoured and a unique police tale." --RTE Guide

"Rich and idiosyncratic ... 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 entre into a world far from our own." --The Independent

From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

A man bound, gagged and sealed alive inside a wall to die. Another quartered, his fingers severed. One of the victims was a musician, the other a locksmith. The only detail that the killings have in common - apart from their abnormal savagery - is a page of a calendar with the day of the death marked in blood.
To solve these bizarre murders, Criminal Councillor Eberhard Mock must search for answers in Breslau's underworld, a decadent demi-monde he knows all to well. As he pursues the investigation, his marriage is in decline. In revenge for his misdemeanours, Mock's wife embarks on a sexual odyssey of her own involving a mysterious figure who appears to be connected with the apocalyptic fever gripping the city and high society of Breslau in the late Twenties. Mock, himself the most ambiguous and complex of policemen, must confront a cult that preaches the imminent end of the world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Melville House Pub
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1612192742
• ISBN 13: 9781612192741
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 294