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The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge
The thrilling tale of a secret European sect and the musical mastermind at its center, from a critically acclaimed novelist at the top of her form. The bodies are discovered on New Year’s Day, sixteen dead in the freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle; the children, in pajamas and overcoats, are curled at their feet. When he hears the news, Commissaire André Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique Carpentier, the Judge, also known as the “sect hunter.” Carpentier sweeps into the investigation in thick glasses and red gloves, and together the Commissaire and the Judge begin searching for clues in a nearby chalet. Among the decorations and unwrapped presents of a seemingly ordinary holiday, they find a leather-bound book, filled with mysterious code, containing maps of the stars. The book of the Faith leads them to the Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is connected in some way to every one of the dead. Following his trail, Carpentier, Schweigen, and the Judge’s assistant, Gaëlle, are drawn into a world of complex family ties, seductive music, and ancient cosmic beliefs. Hurtling breathlessly through the vineyards of Southern France to the gabled houses of Lübeck, Germany, through cathedrals, opera houses, museums, and the cobbled streets of an Alpine village, this ferocious new novel is a metaphysical mystery of astonishing verve and power.
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
9 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Duncker
24 books87 followersPatricia Duncker attended school in England and, after a period spent working in Germany, she read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
June 10, 2017
Directly below is the Synopsis of the eBook I purchased:
The bodies are discovered on New Year's Day, sixteen dead in the freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle; the children, in pajamas and overcoats, are curled at their feet. When he hears the news, Commissaire André Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique Carpentier, the Judge, also known as the "sect hunter." Carpentier sweeps into the investigation in thick glasses and red gloves, and together the Commissaire and the Judge begin searching for clues in a nearby chalet. Among the decorations and unwrapped presents of a seemingly ordinary holiday, they find a leather-bound book, filled with mysterious code, containing maps of the stars. The book of the Faith leads them to the Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is connected in some way to every one of the dead. Following his trail, Carpentier, Schweigen, and the Judge's assistant, Gaëlle, are drawn into a world of complex family ties, seductive music, and ancient cosmic beliefs.
Hurtling breathlessly through the vineyards of Southern France to the gabled houses of Lübeck, Germany, through cathedrals, opera houses, museums, and the cobbled streets of an Alpine village, this ferocious new novel is a metaphysical mystery of astonishing verve and power.
In this book the Composer invites the Judge to an opera at one point. According to the narration, Wagner had a method to his operas, following a template of complicate, prevaricate, and withhold. For the first nearly 40% of this book, I felt that the author was following this template and I felt shut out. I’m not saying this was deliberate or part of the plan, it’s just how I felt – right or wrong.
Part of that may have been because the book was not fully translated. There were parts of the story with French, German, and even Latin words and phrases. Some of these were translated but many were not. Again, it felt like being shut out of this story. When I’m reading a book, I want to be curled up in a big chair, not perched at my computer station on standby to search out words/phrases and various other references that created a barrier with the author and story on one side and me, the reader, on the other.
From the beginning to about 60% through the book, there were some wonderful literary passages in the book, but many of them popped up out of the blue and some felt inappropriate. There was one lovely descriptive passage about a greenhouse they were sitting in. Then, the Judge had a feeling of foreboding, followed by more description and then a conversation between her and the Composer. Meantime, I’m holding this feeling of foreboding, and when the scene shifts to another one altogether, the story fizzled for me, like a damp firecracker.
Again, I did enjoy many of those literary passages and descriptive paragraphs, but at one point it occurred to me that it was like excerpts taken from a notebook of musings and just placed in this novel willy-nilly. That led me to thinking about the author, maybe sitting in a sidewalk café, writing in a notebook various descriptions of memories, or places visited, or places described by others or imagined. I felt sorry that these lovely pieces the author spent so much time writing were placed in a setting where they didn’t fit very well.
At around the 60% mark, the book changed again and became tighter, brisker, and more like it knew where it was going – and I felt far more included.
I didn’t hate this book, nor did I even strongly dislike it. The story premise was interesting, and there were many fascinating topics – I especially enjoyed the music aspects, as well as ancient Egyptian lore, including astronomy, both ancient and modern, and once I was allowed entry to all of this I felt a lot more comfortable.
This is a book that I can’t 100% endorse with a recommendation, but I also wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it if they feel drawn to it.
The bodies are discovered on New Year's Day, sixteen dead in the freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle; the children, in pajamas and overcoats, are curled at their feet. When he hears the news, Commissaire André Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique Carpentier, the Judge, also known as the "sect hunter." Carpentier sweeps into the investigation in thick glasses and red gloves, and together the Commissaire and the Judge begin searching for clues in a nearby chalet. Among the decorations and unwrapped presents of a seemingly ordinary holiday, they find a leather-bound book, filled with mysterious code, containing maps of the stars. The book of the Faith leads them to the Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is connected in some way to every one of the dead. Following his trail, Carpentier, Schweigen, and the Judge's assistant, Gaëlle, are drawn into a world of complex family ties, seductive music, and ancient cosmic beliefs.
Hurtling breathlessly through the vineyards of Southern France to the gabled houses of Lübeck, Germany, through cathedrals, opera houses, museums, and the cobbled streets of an Alpine village, this ferocious new novel is a metaphysical mystery of astonishing verve and power.
In this book the Composer invites the Judge to an opera at one point. According to the narration, Wagner had a method to his operas, following a template of complicate, prevaricate, and withhold. For the first nearly 40% of this book, I felt that the author was following this template and I felt shut out. I’m not saying this was deliberate or part of the plan, it’s just how I felt – right or wrong.
Part of that may have been because the book was not fully translated. There were parts of the story with French, German, and even Latin words and phrases. Some of these were translated but many were not. Again, it felt like being shut out of this story. When I’m reading a book, I want to be curled up in a big chair, not perched at my computer station on standby to search out words/phrases and various other references that created a barrier with the author and story on one side and me, the reader, on the other.
From the beginning to about 60% through the book, there were some wonderful literary passages in the book, but many of them popped up out of the blue and some felt inappropriate. There was one lovely descriptive passage about a greenhouse they were sitting in. Then, the Judge had a feeling of foreboding, followed by more description and then a conversation between her and the Composer. Meantime, I’m holding this feeling of foreboding, and when the scene shifts to another one altogether, the story fizzled for me, like a damp firecracker.
Again, I did enjoy many of those literary passages and descriptive paragraphs, but at one point it occurred to me that it was like excerpts taken from a notebook of musings and just placed in this novel willy-nilly. That led me to thinking about the author, maybe sitting in a sidewalk café, writing in a notebook various descriptions of memories, or places visited, or places described by others or imagined. I felt sorry that these lovely pieces the author spent so much time writing were placed in a setting where they didn’t fit very well.
At around the 60% mark, the book changed again and became tighter, brisker, and more like it knew where it was going – and I felt far more included.
I didn’t hate this book, nor did I even strongly dislike it. The story premise was interesting, and there were many fascinating topics – I especially enjoyed the music aspects, as well as ancient Egyptian lore, including astronomy, both ancient and modern, and once I was allowed entry to all of this I felt a lot more comfortable.
This is a book that I can’t 100% endorse with a recommendation, but I also wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it if they feel drawn to it.
November 9, 2010
I hated this. If I had not received this through LTER, it would have been one of perhaps a half dozen books (and I've read thousands) I failed to finish. Instead I persevered - all the while composing bad reviews in my head.
I'm tempted to say part of my dislike stems from expecting an escapist mystery and receiving a more literary novel. But the truth is if I had received a well-written literary novel instead of an escapist mystery I would have been thrilled.
The well-written part being key. I have seldom encountered prose so stilted. It almost reads like a bad translation, as if English was not the author's first language. I think it is in reality
a case of the author trying too hard. Open any random page and you will find tortured sentences like these:
From page 178 "And although her confidence in her own intuition remained absolute, she needed to draw a hard circle around her morsel of gleaned knowledge."
Or from page 179 "The Judge sent a message back to Gaelle via Reception and sallied forth into the fiery summer streets, where the leaves hung limp in the airless swirl of traffic, and spillage from the fountains evaporated at once upon the burning stones."
The whole novel is like this - thick, overly descriptive prose taking precedence over plot and character development.
The lack of character development being particularly annoying. Characters fall madly, obsessively in love with each other mere moments after meeting.
Consider Andre, a dedicated Commissaire with a wife and young child who falls in love during his first meeting with the Judge based seemingly on her smile - "The smile, full of humour and affection, doomed to be Schweigen's undoing, ensured that from then onwards his every third thought was dedicated to the black-haired, dark-eyed Judge, whose ruthless efficiency, terrifying discipline and legendary self-control drove her colleagues to drink." He precedes to spend the rest of the novel doing little more than emailing her and calling her. She despite the fact they are working a case (and that she is sleeping with him) routinely ignores him.
Then there is the Composer who after two meetings (which are basically interrogations) also falls madly in love with the Judge, declaring his undying devotion to the Judge and asking her to take over guardianship of his goddaughter should anything happen to him.
The Judge after four meetings and four letters falls madly in love with the Composer. Agreeing to said guardianship, handing over vital evidence, and seriously considering marrying the Composer and leading his cult.
I'm tempted to say part of my dislike stems from expecting an escapist mystery and receiving a more literary novel. But the truth is if I had received a well-written literary novel instead of an escapist mystery I would have been thrilled.
The well-written part being key. I have seldom encountered prose so stilted. It almost reads like a bad translation, as if English was not the author's first language. I think it is in reality
a case of the author trying too hard. Open any random page and you will find tortured sentences like these:
From page 178 "And although her confidence in her own intuition remained absolute, she needed to draw a hard circle around her morsel of gleaned knowledge."
Or from page 179 "The Judge sent a message back to Gaelle via Reception and sallied forth into the fiery summer streets, where the leaves hung limp in the airless swirl of traffic, and spillage from the fountains evaporated at once upon the burning stones."
The whole novel is like this - thick, overly descriptive prose taking precedence over plot and character development.
The lack of character development being particularly annoying. Characters fall madly, obsessively in love with each other mere moments after meeting.
Consider Andre, a dedicated Commissaire with a wife and young child who falls in love during his first meeting with the Judge based seemingly on her smile - "The smile, full of humour and affection, doomed to be Schweigen's undoing, ensured that from then onwards his every third thought was dedicated to the black-haired, dark-eyed Judge, whose ruthless efficiency, terrifying discipline and legendary self-control drove her colleagues to drink." He precedes to spend the rest of the novel doing little more than emailing her and calling her. She despite the fact they are working a case (and that she is sleeping with him) routinely ignores him.
Then there is the Composer who after two meetings (which are basically interrogations) also falls madly in love with the Judge, declaring his undying devotion to the Judge and asking her to take over guardianship of his goddaughter should anything happen to him.
The Judge after four meetings and four letters falls madly in love with the Composer. Agreeing to said guardianship, handing over vital evidence, and seriously considering marrying the Composer and leading his cult.
June 30, 2010
What a difficult review to write....... this is a book I probably never would have picked up on my own, but since I won it on Goodreads, I was definitely going to read it. The story deals with a secret organization called The Faith - a group of whom commit a mass suicide on New Year's Eve. The main character is The Judge, Dominique Carpentier, who is investigating the case. Much of the mystery surrounds The Composer. At first, it was a little off-putting, referring to the characters as such, but I got used to it. I thought the author writes beautifully. she is able to describe scenes with an artist's eye. there is not fast-paced action, but the story is so fascinating and captivating that it impels you to move forward. The story was provocative, in that it forces the reader (me, at least) to think about cult vs. sect vs. religion vs. charisma. Sometimes the dialogue was in French or German, and although you could get the gist of it, it was very different from the standard English novel. Here were some good thoughts to ponder:
No one is worthless just because they believe something different from me.
Do I have the right to condemn anyone?
Everything already is both before us and within us.
"The truth cannot be spoken clearly and with conviction, and remain unheard."
I also appreciated the fact that the Judge corrected the Composer's belief that Christian Science is a sect. She assumed he was confusing it with Scientology, and suggested he read Science & Health!
At first, because it was slow moving, I was thinking it would probably be a 2-3 star novel, but as I got into it, I thought - wow - this will be 5 stars. My only disappointment was the ending. It wasn't bad, but too abrupt for my thinking.
No one is worthless just because they believe something different from me.
Do I have the right to condemn anyone?
Everything already is both before us and within us.
"The truth cannot be spoken clearly and with conviction, and remain unheard."
I also appreciated the fact that the Judge corrected the Composer's belief that Christian Science is a sect. She assumed he was confusing it with Scientology, and suggested he read Science & Health!
At first, because it was slow moving, I was thinking it would probably be a 2-3 star novel, but as I got into it, I thought - wow - this will be 5 stars. My only disappointment was the ending. It wasn't bad, but too abrupt for my thinking.
July 23, 2010
An apparent mass suicide/murder in a snowy field by members of a secret cult. A missing gun. And a woman (the Judge) who is supposed to get to the bottom of it all with the help of the Commissaire. Sounds like a good mystery. And somewhere, mixed up in the middle of it all, the Composer, a musician and conductor.
I'm afraid it just didn't work for me. The mystery and the sect, the secrets involved, were not particularly compelling. There were too many unexplained non-English words and phrases and I spent too much time trying to figure them out, wondering if I was missing part of the story. The characters never came to life for me, and from what I knew of them, I didn't particularly like them or care about them. The love interests seemed cold and unrealistic. The writing was occasionally too flowery for the story.
Wagner always comes home to roost. There is a method that underwrites his power: complicate, prevaricate, withhold. Let the water's seepage through the dam become palpable, visible, viscous to the touch. Then unleash all that has been promised and desired in a mighty flood. Deliver the goods.
Like Wagnerian opera, the book was unrealistic, overblown, and sometimes boring. And like Wagner, this book will probably have many fans. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Give me Verdi over Wagner any day. For me, this book didn't deliver the goods.
This book was provided to me by the publisher.
I'm afraid it just didn't work for me. The mystery and the sect, the secrets involved, were not particularly compelling. There were too many unexplained non-English words and phrases and I spent too much time trying to figure them out, wondering if I was missing part of the story. The characters never came to life for me, and from what I knew of them, I didn't particularly like them or care about them. The love interests seemed cold and unrealistic. The writing was occasionally too flowery for the story.
Wagner always comes home to roost. There is a method that underwrites his power: complicate, prevaricate, withhold. Let the water's seepage through the dam become palpable, visible, viscous to the touch. Then unleash all that has been promised and desired in a mighty flood. Deliver the goods.
Like Wagnerian opera, the book was unrealistic, overblown, and sometimes boring. And like Wagner, this book will probably have many fans. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Give me Verdi over Wagner any day. For me, this book didn't deliver the goods.
This book was provided to me by the publisher.
July 31, 2010
Religious cults are pretty neato so I thought this would be right up my alley. It begins auspiciously - 16 people are found dead in the snow, children included, in what appears to be a mass suicide by members of a secret cult. Cool!
Buuut... then my interest in the story totally fell off from there. The police bring in the "Judge", Dominique Carpentier, renowned for her experience as a "sect hunter". It doesn't hurt that the Commissaire has a bit of a boner for her. They find a clue that leads them to a German composer who may or may not have ties to the sect in question.
Again, it sounds great. I just didn't care. The characters all stayed at a distance from the reader, I never felt like I got to know any of them. In a mystery like this especially I find it's important for the characters to be interesting in and of themselves or else what's the point in caring about the mystery period? It was all very cold, which perhaps was the point since it takes place in the winter and the scene of the crime is a snowy wood... but yeah, that's probably just stretching.
I see that Duncker has written another book, Hallucinating Foucault, which might be more interesting. I'm in no rush to read it though.
Buuut... then my interest in the story totally fell off from there. The police bring in the "Judge", Dominique Carpentier, renowned for her experience as a "sect hunter". It doesn't hurt that the Commissaire has a bit of a boner for her. They find a clue that leads them to a German composer who may or may not have ties to the sect in question.
Again, it sounds great. I just didn't care. The characters all stayed at a distance from the reader, I never felt like I got to know any of them. In a mystery like this especially I find it's important for the characters to be interesting in and of themselves or else what's the point in caring about the mystery period? It was all very cold, which perhaps was the point since it takes place in the winter and the scene of the crime is a snowy wood... but yeah, that's probably just stretching.
I see that Duncker has written another book, Hallucinating Foucault, which might be more interesting. I'm in no rush to read it though.
January 2, 2011
I really wanted to like this, but did not. It had a lot of potential - an ancient cult whose members suicide en masses semi-regularly, a French setting (Strasbourg), a female investigator renowned as a sect hunter. What's not to like? Sadly, the author is trying so hard to rise above genre into the realm of literary fiction that's it's painful to read.
In this case she throws all her pretensions against the wall, and they are many - multiple languages for random reasons, random quotes that don't necessarily fit the characters quoting them, dashes of what appear to be vaguely understood Post-Modern philosophy. Sadly everyone of them sort of hangs there on the wall like congealed oatmeal (and just as appealing).
It was so excruciating that I stopped reading it on BART about one-third of the way home and stared out the window so I wouldn't have to keep trying - this is an unusual event and speaks volumes about how much I just couldn't get through this one.
In this case she throws all her pretensions against the wall, and they are many - multiple languages for random reasons, random quotes that don't necessarily fit the characters quoting them, dashes of what appear to be vaguely understood Post-Modern philosophy. Sadly everyone of them sort of hangs there on the wall like congealed oatmeal (and just as appealing).
It was so excruciating that I stopped reading it on BART about one-third of the way home and stared out the window so I wouldn't have to keep trying - this is an unusual event and speaks volumes about how much I just couldn't get through this one.
May 2, 2016
Awkward. Every sentence was pain from the beginning to the end. The tone was completely impersonal and passive, which made me not care one bit what happened. It was made worse by descriptions of totally random things which did nothing to contribute to the atmosphere of which there was none to begin with--maybe that was the problem. The characters' actions were not sufficiently justified, suddenly they just profess love for each other even though the other one is just constantly creepy and threatening. At that point I was wondering if this was a badly executed parody.
Word choices were ridiculous and ill-fitting at times. As if the author had wanted to show off her vocabulary skills but forgot that context matters. Not to mention the annoyance of repeating the same sentence in two languages. Repeatedly. There are ways to incorporate languages and a feeling of being in a certain country in more elegant ways.
I've no idea why I even bothered to finish this.
Word choices were ridiculous and ill-fitting at times. As if the author had wanted to show off her vocabulary skills but forgot that context matters. Not to mention the annoyance of repeating the same sentence in two languages. Repeatedly. There are ways to incorporate languages and a feeling of being in a certain country in more elegant ways.
I've no idea why I even bothered to finish this.
December 1, 2014
This novel would make a great movie. By which I don’t mean to imply that it falls short in any way as a novel, or even that its values are noticeably, let alone dominantly, cinematic. As always, Duncker’s style and concerns are literary. She luxuriates in language, and not just English (this text, at times distractingly, yields snatches of French, German and Latin), while her settings are so vivid, they function more like characters than exotic backdrops.
Mostly, I was too engrossed to imagine a film version, even if ‘the Composer’ looked like a white-haired Rutger Hauer in my mind. Maybe it helps that I’ve known some kooky religious cult members (who appeared down-to-earth at first), so I found the premise quite believable. And the astronomical theme, though my interest is amateur, appealed (my only complaint about The Transit of Venus, Shirley Hazzard’s masterpiece, was the almost solely metaphorical aptness of the title). Finally, the nature of the love triangle between the cult investigator (the Judge), her dogged colleague and obsessed yet prosaic lover (the Commissaire), and their murder suspect with obvious connections to the suicide cult (the Composer), rang true: that classic conflict of coinciding desires for opposite types, a duality which can’t be resolved by just choosing one or the other, but only (or so I assumed early on; the end’s inconclusive) by losing both.
Dominique, the sect hunter, is caught between two kinds of love: carnal/earthly and spiritual/eternal. As the central character in this drama, she undergoes profound inner change – a satisfying arc, which ought to reward the thinking, feeling reader more than would a formulaic, falsely happy ending. In fact, for me, this story ended with rare (and elegant) abruptness – welcome not because I’d had enough, but because it left me room for reflection. But then, I read to gratify intellectual as well as emotional needs.
Duncker’s fascination with fire vs. ice, a theme in her 2002 novel, The Deadly Space Between, reappears here. But the enigmatic villain of that fantasy thriller embodies ice. In this relatively realist tale, his more ambiguous counterpart – the passionate Composer – embodies more than one kind of fire, which slowly but surely thaws the rational heroine’s frozen emotions. Yet this is less a romance than a tragedy. Duncker respects her readers’ intelligence too much to wrap things up happily. Typically, she specialises in dramatic plot twists, but she doesn’t pull off one of those in this case. I don’t think that was her intention.
To gauge from the four of her novels I’ve read, Duncker tends to favour first-person narration for male protagonists and third-person for females. This strategy (does it assist objectivity re her own sex?) serves her well. My only reservation is that her use of third person can, at times, feel intrusive – as if she’s so rapt in some concept, she briefly forgets she’s telling a story, e.g.:
Admittedly, Dominique sits waiting for an opera to begin. And intrusive narration, used judiciously, is a centuries-old tradition. But, leaving aside that the topic of Truth is distracting because it’s so big and debatable, why not reveal Dominique’s feelings and skip the unintegrated guiding idea? The author’s instructive tone struck me as distancing here. And not because I’m attached to realist conventions, the fictional illusion; for instance, I enjoy Kundera’s essayistic style, as well as the metafiction of many younger postmodernist writers. But the thriller, Duncker’s natural bent (if not ‘genre’; she writes hybrids), has certain basic requirements, such as suspense.
I’d prefer to rate this 4½: 4 sells it short of how much I loved it, while 5 would put it on a par with my all-time favourites. This isn’t Duncker’s magnum opus. It’s just ravishingly stylish, highly intelligent, emotionally engaging and potentially mind-expanding entertainment.
Mostly, I was too engrossed to imagine a film version, even if ‘the Composer’ looked like a white-haired Rutger Hauer in my mind. Maybe it helps that I’ve known some kooky religious cult members (who appeared down-to-earth at first), so I found the premise quite believable. And the astronomical theme, though my interest is amateur, appealed (my only complaint about The Transit of Venus, Shirley Hazzard’s masterpiece, was the almost solely metaphorical aptness of the title). Finally, the nature of the love triangle between the cult investigator (the Judge), her dogged colleague and obsessed yet prosaic lover (the Commissaire), and their murder suspect with obvious connections to the suicide cult (the Composer), rang true: that classic conflict of coinciding desires for opposite types, a duality which can’t be resolved by just choosing one or the other, but only (or so I assumed early on; the end’s inconclusive) by losing both.
Dominique, the sect hunter, is caught between two kinds of love: carnal/earthly and spiritual/eternal. As the central character in this drama, she undergoes profound inner change – a satisfying arc, which ought to reward the thinking, feeling reader more than would a formulaic, falsely happy ending. In fact, for me, this story ended with rare (and elegant) abruptness – welcome not because I’d had enough, but because it left me room for reflection. But then, I read to gratify intellectual as well as emotional needs.
Duncker’s fascination with fire vs. ice, a theme in her 2002 novel, The Deadly Space Between, reappears here. But the enigmatic villain of that fantasy thriller embodies ice. In this relatively realist tale, his more ambiguous counterpart – the passionate Composer – embodies more than one kind of fire, which slowly but surely thaws the rational heroine’s frozen emotions. Yet this is less a romance than a tragedy. Duncker respects her readers’ intelligence too much to wrap things up happily. Typically, she specialises in dramatic plot twists, but she doesn’t pull off one of those in this case. I don’t think that was her intention.
To gauge from the four of her novels I’ve read, Duncker tends to favour first-person narration for male protagonists and third-person for females. This strategy (does it assist objectivity re her own sex?) serves her well. My only reservation is that her use of third person can, at times, feel intrusive – as if she’s so rapt in some concept, she briefly forgets she’s telling a story, e.g.:
She sought the Truth, and nothing but the Truth. Yet the Truth is not, and cannot be, the instrument of freedom for every one of us; and to know the Truth may well imprison gentle souls in wretchedness for ever.
Admittedly, Dominique sits waiting for an opera to begin. And intrusive narration, used judiciously, is a centuries-old tradition. But, leaving aside that the topic of Truth is distracting because it’s so big and debatable, why not reveal Dominique’s feelings and skip the unintegrated guiding idea? The author’s instructive tone struck me as distancing here. And not because I’m attached to realist conventions, the fictional illusion; for instance, I enjoy Kundera’s essayistic style, as well as the metafiction of many younger postmodernist writers. But the thriller, Duncker’s natural bent (if not ‘genre’; she writes hybrids), has certain basic requirements, such as suspense.
I’d prefer to rate this 4½: 4 sells it short of how much I loved it, while 5 would put it on a par with my all-time favourites. This isn’t Duncker’s magnum opus. It’s just ravishingly stylish, highly intelligent, emotionally engaging and potentially mind-expanding entertainment.
March 24, 2012
This is probably really two stars, I'm being kind. Basically literary crime, and while initially the book makes it look like a good idea, it's not that long before it just doesn't do anything very well. I feel like Duncker had an idea for a story, wrote some of it, and where she should have then realised that the initial idea needed to be built on, that she didn't have enough plot or concept, she just kept on writing. There's not really a mystery here, and the Faith doesn't have any secrets. I understand it's hard to make secret sects interesting, because one suspects that even a millenia-old one just sits around talking psychobabble completely not worth keeping secret, but, you know, try. It's absurd that the Judge would let herself get drawn in by the Composer. I won't say that it's absurd that the Judge is so adored, because having read some of Duncker's other stuff, I think that's her thing, to have a magnetic, mysterious figure who really is just that great. Except if Duncker was going to go for that, she needed to show the Judge as having more of the upper hand. The set-up has an intriguing eeriness to it, and it would have been interesting if the central focal point, a battle between two different kinds of charisma, had been more explicit and dramatised, but yeah, it definitely needed more plot to get anywhere, and I'm not one of those people who demand plot or nothing. The other thing is Duncker's France preoccupation. It really reads like a besotted tourist piling on the picturesque desciptions at parts. It's a bit dull, and shows too clearly that Duncker is writing from the outside. But three stars because it's one of those bad books written by someone you feel could have done something interesting with it.
April 1, 2011
Chapter one had me hopeful that this was an actually good book. Hunters find a circle of bodies in the snow, evidence of a mysterious sect known as the Faith. It was a delightful first chapter, intriguingly well-painted, nearly five star level. But then the author introduced her main characters and they were just awful. I tried to like them, but as the book continued I grew increasingly disgusted toward just about everyone for stupid illogical actions, overly verbose & dramatic everything, and being in general just completely unlikeable. Duncker tried way too hard. Just because one knows lots of adjectives doesn't mean one should use them so copiously.
I'm more mad about this being a dumb book than I normally would be, because it wasn't just a bad book, it was a bad book that momentarily fooled me into thinking it was a good book, and that's just unforgivable.
I'm more mad about this being a dumb book than I normally would be, because it wasn't just a bad book, it was a bad book that momentarily fooled me into thinking it was a good book, and that's just unforgivable.
April 7, 2020
This was painful. I simply could not finish it. After about one-third through I decided that I just could not push on. And I usually can read anything. I found the writing just too painful to read. Many words but little plot or character development. The story had such potential. But it simply failed to develop or engage me.
January 6, 2021
This appears to be a misunderstood novel. Duncker often subverts genres and most readers have approached this as a crime novel with a sort of philosophical layer. Or a Christmas book because it is set on New Year's Day in the snow! The crime element, of course, is invited by the intense opening in which sixteen bodies are found in a semi-circle after a cult suicide. Dominique Carpentier, the Judge, is summoned to witness the scene, And her enquiries eventually lead to Friedrich Grosz, the Composer.
On one level, the book is concerned with solving the mystery of the Faith and its connection to the Composer. But the narrative is subsumed into something bigger. When Carpentier attends the funeral of Marie-Cecile Laval, the central figure in the mass suicide, the coffin is draped with a flag of stars. Desire, from the Latin, means "from the stars" and Duncker's novel expands into a complex dialogue about Reason and Emotion, Science and the Arts, free will and Fate. The language suits this theme: it switches continually between cold forensics and burning passions -- for the flesh, for the mind, for answers, for truth. The novel is orchestrated carefully and sweeps towards a central meeting in which the Composer challenges the Judge with a recital of Wagner. Emotion and Reason clash awkwardly.
There is something of Golding in The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge". The title is ambiguous -- "His" intimates belonging to and answerable to. Both are in some ways correct. And the novel is filled with the sort of ambivalences that Golding relished. Also, there is a sense in which the characters are working out a grand design -- one that is written in the stars -- such that literal and metaphorical levels fuse.
Much criticism has been aimed at the amount of French and German in the text. I cannot understand why. Duncker translates languages as she goes along and most is explained immediately. The mixing of literary styles is far more demanding, and ultimately far more rewarding.
On one level, the book is concerned with solving the mystery of the Faith and its connection to the Composer. But the narrative is subsumed into something bigger. When Carpentier attends the funeral of Marie-Cecile Laval, the central figure in the mass suicide, the coffin is draped with a flag of stars. Desire, from the Latin, means "from the stars" and Duncker's novel expands into a complex dialogue about Reason and Emotion, Science and the Arts, free will and Fate. The language suits this theme: it switches continually between cold forensics and burning passions -- for the flesh, for the mind, for answers, for truth. The novel is orchestrated carefully and sweeps towards a central meeting in which the Composer challenges the Judge with a recital of Wagner. Emotion and Reason clash awkwardly.
There is something of Golding in The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge". The title is ambiguous -- "His" intimates belonging to and answerable to. Both are in some ways correct. And the novel is filled with the sort of ambivalences that Golding relished. Also, there is a sense in which the characters are working out a grand design -- one that is written in the stars -- such that literal and metaphorical levels fuse.
Much criticism has been aimed at the amount of French and German in the text. I cannot understand why. Duncker translates languages as she goes along and most is explained immediately. The mixing of literary styles is far more demanding, and ultimately far more rewarding.
January 16, 2022
I hate that I always feel the need to apologise whenever I rate books low 😂 The reason this book has such a low rating imo is because it’s just so… disjointed? Like… what? Sooooo this Judge starts of as some boss ass woman researching a sect, cold as ice, playing with mens hearts, wouldn’t cross her with a knife… Then she meets the Composer who’s part of the Faith, who threatens and yells at her the first time they meet, and then promptly falls passionately in love with her. What?
The Judge getting involved in the sect wasn’t very unpredictable… what WAS annoying and unpredictably predictable was her being wishy-washy between the Composer and the other police guy who’s cheating on his wife for her. What happened to the boss ass babe she started of as? Reduced to a mess of longing and confusion? Like UGH I don’t read romance in particular but this REALLY reminds me why I don’t delve much into that genre ‘cause I’m afraid I end up reading stuff like this.
I stopped halfway and then skimmed quickly through this one because there were so many WORDS. Is this what people mean when they say ‘unnecessary prose’? An example: ”The darkness behind the young singer opened out into a windy dawn, so that the figures, silent as statues, stood dark against the transfigured light, and the Judge, no longer able to see or breathe, found her face awash with tears.” Stop!!! Stop it with the commas I beg you.
Despite all that. I did finish the book to find out what happened in the end. And was left largely disappointed.
The Judge getting involved in the sect wasn’t very unpredictable… what WAS annoying and unpredictably predictable was her being wishy-washy between the Composer and the other police guy who’s cheating on his wife for her. What happened to the boss ass babe she started of as? Reduced to a mess of longing and confusion? Like UGH I don’t read romance in particular but this REALLY reminds me why I don’t delve much into that genre ‘cause I’m afraid I end up reading stuff like this.
I stopped halfway and then skimmed quickly through this one because there were so many WORDS. Is this what people mean when they say ‘unnecessary prose’? An example: ”The darkness behind the young singer opened out into a windy dawn, so that the figures, silent as statues, stood dark against the transfigured light, and the Judge, no longer able to see or breathe, found her face awash with tears.” Stop!!! Stop it with the commas I beg you.
Despite all that. I did finish the book to find out what happened in the end. And was left largely disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2018
I just couldn't get into this story. I'm so glad I was listening to it rather than reading it as I would've probably been concentrating more of the pronunciation of the French names and sentences thrown in here and there that I probably wouldn't have made it as far as I did through the story. I think I barely made it halfway but that's hard to tell when you're listening to audio.
First I had to get over the mental image of The Judge constantly wearing a barristers wig and robe just like an ACTUAL judge, so that didn't help, especially when she was deep in a crime scene etc. I think it's just difficult to imagine the scenarios when this whole thing is delt with very differently in France than it is in England.
I kept losing who was who when they used varying names for what seemed to be the same person too, and then I realised I'd seemed to miss big chunks of the actual crime being investigated and didn't really care to start the story over again to pick it up.
In short... I wasn't bothered about knowing what happens to all these characters in the end, so that's my que to stop and download another title.
Fin.
First I had to get over the mental image of The Judge constantly wearing a barristers wig and robe just like an ACTUAL judge, so that didn't help, especially when she was deep in a crime scene etc. I think it's just difficult to imagine the scenarios when this whole thing is delt with very differently in France than it is in England.
I kept losing who was who when they used varying names for what seemed to be the same person too, and then I realised I'd seemed to miss big chunks of the actual crime being investigated and didn't really care to start the story over again to pick it up.
In short... I wasn't bothered about knowing what happens to all these characters in the end, so that's my que to stop and download another title.
Fin.
May 13, 2022
I was attracted to this book by its European flavour and its promise of a journey through snowy mountains, vineyards in Southern France, medieval German towns, opera houses and museums. Sadly the locations were about as interesting as it got. The absence of a discernible plot, the cast of generally unlikeable characters and the overwrought and hyperbolic prose all contributed to make this really hard work. No doubt all the stuff about the cosmos and the Auriga Star was meticulously researched, but research alone doesn't make a story interesting.
I ploughed on to the end in the hope of a dramatic revelation but it ended rather perfunctorily, as though the author had also got bored with her story.
I ploughed on to the end in the hope of a dramatic revelation but it ended rather perfunctorily, as though the author had also got bored with her story.
September 21, 2020
Painfully bad. I started reading this several years ago for a book club before moving cities and never finished it. Having rediscovered it on my bookshelf I thought it worth starting again. I wish I hadn't bothered. Utterly nonsensical with characters so poorly written you have no idea of neither their motive nor really their purpose. The final act keeps you guessing but by no means for any good reason, merely because the plot makes little sense. Definitely one for the recycling/donation bin.
July 20, 2022
Jaren geleden heb ik dit boek ooit op een beurs meegenomen. Door de titel verwachte ik een luchtige, soms bijna grappige, detective, maar niets was minder waar.
De karakters zijn in mijn beleving erg vlak en het verhaal is ongeloofwaardig. Daarbij is de manier van schrijven voor mij persoonlijk ook te langdradig en draagt weinig bij. Het boek had prima de helft dik kunnen zijn en dan was het magere verhaal misschien wat beter uit de verf gekomen. Jammer, want de titel maakte me nieuwsgierig.
De karakters zijn in mijn beleving erg vlak en het verhaal is ongeloofwaardig. Daarbij is de manier van schrijven voor mij persoonlijk ook te langdradig en draagt weinig bij. Het boek had prima de helft dik kunnen zijn en dan was het magere verhaal misschien wat beter uit de verf gekomen. Jammer, want de titel maakte me nieuwsgierig.
December 8, 2017
Hard book to rate. The premise was interesting but the book read fairly slow and I found that I didn't believe some of the plot twists. I found myself either skipping some of the descriptive language or rereading some of it because I couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say, and whether I needed to know it to understand the story.
March 31, 2018
I struggled finishing this book. At first I thought that this was going to be an exciting story. Hunters find 16 bodies in the snow, evidence that it might be the work of a mysterious sect known as the faith. But it was a hard story to read. The writer is using a lot of information about: astronomy, Greek mythology and music. Which didn’t made it less complicated and confusing. The lack of character development was also very annoying. Characters fell almost immediately madly in love with each other.
The main character seemed very interesting in the beginning, but I found the choices she made very frustrating. Things like: handing over vital evidence, and seriously considering marrying the Composer and leading his cult.
I felt like I hadn't been reading a mystery but a strange love story.
The main character seemed very interesting in the beginning, but I found the choices she made very frustrating. Things like: handing over vital evidence, and seriously considering marrying the Composer and leading his cult.
I felt like I hadn't been reading a mystery but a strange love story.
December 31, 2017
Picked it up thinking it was a Christmassy book as it starts New Years Day, but only a few chapters dedicated to it, then it jumps to March. It's very sci-fi and cultish - not your typical crime fiction.
March 21, 2020
Picked it up on three separate occasions and still couldn't get across the line, always found myself opting for another book.
The story seems compelling enough, but the style just doesn't cut it with me.
Wouldn't recommend 😐
The story seems compelling enough, but the style just doesn't cut it with me.
Wouldn't recommend 😐
April 3, 2018
Disappointing
February 28, 2021
Unusual but intriguing.
June 13, 2021
Way to tedious & wordy. Makes it boring to read.
left-high-and-dry
February 21, 2023I couldn’t do it. Lol
January 21, 2011
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE COMPOSER AND HIS JUDGE
The book opens with three hunters looking down on a clearing on New Year’s Day. “Nine adults…stretched out upon their backs, settled into a sedate, reclining curve. Their elbows were bent back, their hands raised, palms facing upward….” At their feet, warmly dressed and swaddled, are the bodies of their children. Sixteen people dead, only one violently.
Commissaire Andre Schweigen is the police representative in charge of the investigation. Six years earlier, the same scene had been set in Switzerland, the difference being that in Switzerland the body count was much higher. There sixty-nine people had been found in the semi-circle, one killed violently. Schweigen sends for Dominique Carpentier, the investigative judge known as the “sect hunter”. They had been called to Switzerland because some of the people who had participated in “the departure” had been French citizens but the Swiss had not wanted to proceed with an investigation, so Dominique and Andre had been left with questions and no way in which to get answers.
Now, with the crime on French soil, they can pursue the case and make the connections between the two events. In Switzerland, sixty-eight people had died by poisoning, one had been shot in the head. In France, fifteen had died by poisoning, one had been shot in the head. No gun was found at either scene. Someone had watched people die and then ended the life of one. In Switzerland, the last to die was Anton Laval. In France, the last to die was Marie-Cecile Laval, his sister, and Dominique’s best friend from childhood.
Dominique’s reputation was built on her determination and her success in ferreting out pseudo-religious sects that prey on the desperate, the lonely, the religious, and the rich. As the authorities examine the house in which the newly dead had been living, there are signs of celebration: Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, gifts, and the things associated with the mid-night celebration of the New Year. Yet, just after that moment, nine adults had willingly died and had taken their children with them.
As Andre and Dominique search through the house, they find a book, old judging by the paper on which is printed, written in a strange language, like Hebrew, but not a language anyone recognizes. There are prayers and poems and a celestial map. Astronomy has been a part of many religions through time and the “Faith” seems to incorporate elements of the monotheistic religions and some incantations of the Egyptians as well. The book is clearly one of a kind and the name of the owner is written in very small script,not meant to be easily seen. The book belongs to Friedrich Grosz, the world famous composer and conductor.
The investigation leads Dominique back to her childhood and the time spent at Domain Laval, a winery of some distinction. It also leads her to Grosz, a larger than life character of formidable charisma. Andre is in love with Dominique, his partner in a long relationship, and, soon, Grosz will be his rival for the love of the judge who is drawn to the Composer but unsettled by his intensity.
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE COMPOSER AND HIS JUDGE has been described as a “metaphysical mystery”. Dominique’s job as a judge in the French legal system is not to weigh evidence but to find it so it can be passed on to those who decide who is prosecuted and who is not. In that sense, the story is metaphysical. Dominique has to examine the nature of the reality that drove the members of the Faith to choose departure for themselves and their children so that they may become immortal. But the Faith and the deaths are also tied to reality of fact. Has there been financial chicanery, enticing those ready to depart to bestow their assets on the Faith? Has someone committed murder from a distance?
The book has the requirements to be considered an exercise in metaphysics but it doesn’t meet the requirements of mystery. The book ends in the only way it can and the author makes no attempt to divert the reader onto a less obvious path. The book is an examination of the philosophies that form personality and intellect, a mystery of sorts, but not a mystery in the conventional sense.
So, why keep reading? THE STRANGE CASE OF THE COMPOSER AND HIS JUDGE is the most beautiful and evocative use of language since THE SHADOW OF THE WIND.
February 1, 2012
A mass suicide on New Year's Day brings Dominique Carpentier ("the Judge") out to investigate alongside Commissaire Andre Schweigen. The pair had previously investigated a similar mass suicide and believe this to be the work of the same sect. The investigation leads them to a man known as "the Composer", Friedrich Grosz, who seems to be involved in the sect but his role in unclear, so the Judge continues to investigate while being drawn more and more into his life and charisma.
The book starts off well, with the discovery of the bodies. I was intrigued by what had happened, especially since it appeared that both times this had happened, all but one had died "peacefully" with poison and then one had shot him/herself... only no gun was found, so obviously someone else had to have been there before disappearing. It had all the settings of a good mystery, and the back cover even refers to this novel as a "metaphysical mystery". However, I did not find this to be much of a mystery in any sense. Yes, the Judge was investigating what had happened, but the pacing was slow and there was more emphasis on the relationships between the people and the evidence that somewhat explained the Faith (what the mysterious sect was called) than there was emphasis on the actual mystery.
The writing, for me, was hit and miss. Some of the writing was full of thoughtful sentiment, while other parts were extremely awkward. One thing that continually threw me was the fact that the book takes place in Europe, and to drive home the fact that they weren't talking in English, random French or German sentences peppered dialogue without translation. Why have their speech in more than one language? Why not simply mention they're speaking French or German or whatever? Since the characters were not speaking in two languages in a single breath, it made no sense to write it this way. It got annoying very fast and continually took me out of the story.
The characters felt very one dimensional. Perhaps part of this is due to the fact that many of them were called by their nicknames or titles (ie, the Judge, the Composer...) instead of their actual names, but I think this could have been fine if their personalities were more developed. There were so many love stories going on, yet I couldn't see the attraction between any of them. Schweigen is married with a child, yet he immediately falls madly in love with the Judge. When the Judge meets the Composer, it takes no time for him to fall madly in love with her. Neither of these relationships were well developed or seemed natural, and they didn't add a whole lot of depth to the novel because of that. I kept thinking how odd it was that the Judge, who was portrayed as a very intelligent and capable woman, would quickly return her main suspect's affections when he didn't come across as particularly charismatic to the reader. This love triangle was the main way in which these characters were developed, and since their relationships felt unrealistic, so did their characters.
I did find parts of the investigation interesting, such as when Schweigen looked into the sect's financial records, trying to discern members still alive. I enjoyed following the Judge's investigation into the Faith's prized book, filled with notes in a code they can't seem to crack or make sense of. I also liked the Judge's thoughts about what makes sects destructive and how people are free to believe whatever they'd like so long as no harm comes to anyone. However, despite the things I did like about this book, I thought the novel as a whole was a let down, with a disappointing ending and characters that never resonated with me.
The book starts off well, with the discovery of the bodies. I was intrigued by what had happened, especially since it appeared that both times this had happened, all but one had died "peacefully" with poison and then one had shot him/herself... only no gun was found, so obviously someone else had to have been there before disappearing. It had all the settings of a good mystery, and the back cover even refers to this novel as a "metaphysical mystery". However, I did not find this to be much of a mystery in any sense. Yes, the Judge was investigating what had happened, but the pacing was slow and there was more emphasis on the relationships between the people and the evidence that somewhat explained the Faith (what the mysterious sect was called) than there was emphasis on the actual mystery.
The writing, for me, was hit and miss. Some of the writing was full of thoughtful sentiment, while other parts were extremely awkward. One thing that continually threw me was the fact that the book takes place in Europe, and to drive home the fact that they weren't talking in English, random French or German sentences peppered dialogue without translation. Why have their speech in more than one language? Why not simply mention they're speaking French or German or whatever? Since the characters were not speaking in two languages in a single breath, it made no sense to write it this way. It got annoying very fast and continually took me out of the story.
The characters felt very one dimensional. Perhaps part of this is due to the fact that many of them were called by their nicknames or titles (ie, the Judge, the Composer...) instead of their actual names, but I think this could have been fine if their personalities were more developed. There were so many love stories going on, yet I couldn't see the attraction between any of them. Schweigen is married with a child, yet he immediately falls madly in love with the Judge. When the Judge meets the Composer, it takes no time for him to fall madly in love with her. Neither of these relationships were well developed or seemed natural, and they didn't add a whole lot of depth to the novel because of that. I kept thinking how odd it was that the Judge, who was portrayed as a very intelligent and capable woman, would quickly return her main suspect's affections when he didn't come across as particularly charismatic to the reader. This love triangle was the main way in which these characters were developed, and since their relationships felt unrealistic, so did their characters.
I did find parts of the investigation interesting, such as when Schweigen looked into the sect's financial records, trying to discern members still alive. I enjoyed following the Judge's investigation into the Faith's prized book, filled with notes in a code they can't seem to crack or make sense of. I also liked the Judge's thoughts about what makes sects destructive and how people are free to believe whatever they'd like so long as no harm comes to anyone. However, despite the things I did like about this book, I thought the novel as a whole was a let down, with a disappointing ending and characters that never resonated with me.
June 28, 2010
I actually won this book in a giveaway and was beyond thrilled at the prospect of an exciting book that I didn't have to pay for. The novel starts off with the finding of a mass of dead bodies, which immediately grabbed me. For why on this dreadful Earth, would all those adults and children be lying in such an odd arrangement in the horrible snow? Well, I won't give you too many of the fabulous horrible details, but it most definitely has to do with a religious sect. Apparently, it isn't the first time this has happened and the police don't even seem to be phased by such a heart wrenching thing as children bundled in furs and poisoned to death. What pray tell is this madness?!
I'll tell you, it's a "suicide cult" who kill themselves and their children, but why. Why would they do something so horrible?
To this I would say that religion can and has made people do many things that I would look at with complete and utter horror, so why should this be any different. Why should a group of people, hand selected, to join together in a belief that unites them phase me? It doesn't, but there seems to be something off about this Faith and its followers. Maybe it's because our main character The Judge cannot find anything about them or the Faith. She cannot discover the beliefs and gospels held within and she cannot read the code inside the book of the Faith. The whole affair is shrouded in mystery, drawing everyone into its clutches. But our Judge, Dominique Carpentier does not give up. It is not in her nature to do so. But is what she finds in the end worth it? I will let you be "the Judge" and decide.
This I will say, as a whole, the book was a remarkable piece of fiction for which held me on to the bitter end. Although the book is told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view, The Judge is our main character and as a main character, I'd like to add myself as one of her adoring admirers. She is a tough cookie, always in control of what she wants. I think that it was probably her ability to look at most things with undeniable reason and without the drama of life intermixed that I loved.
She was not the only lovable character within the book, which made it an even more enjoyable read for me. The Composer was a lovely heated mess. Her assistant was so different from the norm that I could not help but adore her crass.
However, the French and German sentences thrown into the sentence mix really threw my reading and became annoying at times. I may be able to read French, but deciphering it is a whole other matter. And the German was even worse. There was also way too much description of things that were not important AT ALL to the story. How certain things looked and their position to The Judge was really just bothersome. It did not help to paint any specific portrait surrounding the plot except to confuse me with its excessive wording. Towards the end I began to skim over the extreme descriptions.
But, the story was still magnificent and disturbingly brilliant. Suicide cults have always intrigued me and caused my curiosity to flow like a hurricane. So, the book gets marked up for its excellent, gripping story and down for its excessive descriptions of the unimportant and its surplus of French and German (both languages I have nothing against).
I'll tell you, it's a "suicide cult" who kill themselves and their children, but why. Why would they do something so horrible?
To this I would say that religion can and has made people do many things that I would look at with complete and utter horror, so why should this be any different. Why should a group of people, hand selected, to join together in a belief that unites them phase me? It doesn't, but there seems to be something off about this Faith and its followers. Maybe it's because our main character The Judge cannot find anything about them or the Faith. She cannot discover the beliefs and gospels held within and she cannot read the code inside the book of the Faith. The whole affair is shrouded in mystery, drawing everyone into its clutches. But our Judge, Dominique Carpentier does not give up. It is not in her nature to do so. But is what she finds in the end worth it? I will let you be "the Judge" and decide.
This I will say, as a whole, the book was a remarkable piece of fiction for which held me on to the bitter end. Although the book is told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view, The Judge is our main character and as a main character, I'd like to add myself as one of her adoring admirers. She is a tough cookie, always in control of what she wants. I think that it was probably her ability to look at most things with undeniable reason and without the drama of life intermixed that I loved.
She was not the only lovable character within the book, which made it an even more enjoyable read for me. The Composer was a lovely heated mess. Her assistant was so different from the norm that I could not help but adore her crass.
However, the French and German sentences thrown into the sentence mix really threw my reading and became annoying at times. I may be able to read French, but deciphering it is a whole other matter. And the German was even worse. There was also way too much description of things that were not important AT ALL to the story. How certain things looked and their position to The Judge was really just bothersome. It did not help to paint any specific portrait surrounding the plot except to confuse me with its excessive wording. Towards the end I began to skim over the extreme descriptions.
But, the story was still magnificent and disturbingly brilliant. Suicide cults have always intrigued me and caused my curiosity to flow like a hurricane. So, the book gets marked up for its excellent, gripping story and down for its excessive descriptions of the unimportant and its surplus of French and German (both languages I have nothing against).
July 25, 2010
The philosophical discourse at the heart of The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge by Patricia Duncker is wrapped in just enough mystery to keep the reader pursuing the answers to the puzzling mass suicides committed by followers of an ecumenical religious order known as the Faith.
The story opens with the discovery of 16 bodies, adults and children, found by hunters in a field in France, the adults arranged in a semi-circle facing the east with the children at their feet. All but one has died by poisoning; the remaining one, Marie-Cécile Laval, has been shot, but no gun is found at the scene. This second mass “departure,” as it is known in the Faith, is much smaller than the one that occurred in Switzerland six years earlier in which sixty-nine teenagers and adults “had either killed themselves, or been assisted on their passage into eternity . . . .” In that departure Marie-Cécile Laval's brother had been the one found shot and, likewise, no gun was found. Because many of the dead at the Swiss site were French, André Schweigen of the French police was consulted. He in turn consulted with a specialized investigator, Judge Dominique Carpentier, known as “the sect hunter,” whose mission is to ferret out pseudo-religious sects and determine what charges, if any, can be brought against them. But the Swiss were not anxious to pursue the case and so the French team made no progress. Now, six years later with a new crime on French soil, the Judge can pursue her investigation against the Faith with renewed vigor. Together with Schweigen and her assistant, Gaëlle, they discover a coded guidebook to the Faith, as well as its most prominent member, the world-renown German Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is the godfather of Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Marie-Cécile Laval, a friend from the Judge's youth. The Judge is determined to discover how all of these people and clues fit together, but there is another complication, one the Judge is not as prepared to handle: both Schweigen and the Composer are hopelessly and unashamedly in love with the Judge. And so, what begins as a murder investigation enlarges to include an examination of religious sects and the limits of religious freedom, the emotional appeal of opera and--because the Faith is based on the movement of certain stars--the central role of astronomy in many religions. Much like a musical composition, the story starts slowly then builds to a tension-filled crescendo with a fitting and just finale.
Ultimately,The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge is primarily a literary work with the mystery serving more as a transparent framework for the philosophical dialogue that infuses the story. Mystery readers who read widely in other genres will find this an interesting read, as well as readers who enjoyed works like The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and Olive Kitteridge.
This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher through an early review program.
The story opens with the discovery of 16 bodies, adults and children, found by hunters in a field in France, the adults arranged in a semi-circle facing the east with the children at their feet. All but one has died by poisoning; the remaining one, Marie-Cécile Laval, has been shot, but no gun is found at the scene. This second mass “departure,” as it is known in the Faith, is much smaller than the one that occurred in Switzerland six years earlier in which sixty-nine teenagers and adults “had either killed themselves, or been assisted on their passage into eternity . . . .” In that departure Marie-Cécile Laval's brother had been the one found shot and, likewise, no gun was found. Because many of the dead at the Swiss site were French, André Schweigen of the French police was consulted. He in turn consulted with a specialized investigator, Judge Dominique Carpentier, known as “the sect hunter,” whose mission is to ferret out pseudo-religious sects and determine what charges, if any, can be brought against them. But the Swiss were not anxious to pursue the case and so the French team made no progress. Now, six years later with a new crime on French soil, the Judge can pursue her investigation against the Faith with renewed vigor. Together with Schweigen and her assistant, Gaëlle, they discover a coded guidebook to the Faith, as well as its most prominent member, the world-renown German Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is the godfather of Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Marie-Cécile Laval, a friend from the Judge's youth. The Judge is determined to discover how all of these people and clues fit together, but there is another complication, one the Judge is not as prepared to handle: both Schweigen and the Composer are hopelessly and unashamedly in love with the Judge. And so, what begins as a murder investigation enlarges to include an examination of religious sects and the limits of religious freedom, the emotional appeal of opera and--because the Faith is based on the movement of certain stars--the central role of astronomy in many religions. Much like a musical composition, the story starts slowly then builds to a tension-filled crescendo with a fitting and just finale.
Ultimately,The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge is primarily a literary work with the mystery serving more as a transparent framework for the philosophical dialogue that infuses the story. Mystery readers who read widely in other genres will find this an interesting read, as well as readers who enjoyed works like The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and Olive Kitteridge.
This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher through an early review program.
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January 3, 2017It used to be that a good mystery was a good mystery and literary fiction and its attendant awards were another world. Then authors like John Banville and Kate Atkinson wrote mystery novels and a new creature was born; the literary mystery. Of course, they've always existed. What else is Crime and Punishment or Murder in the Rue Morgue or any number of classics with a hint of suspense or crime? There have always been mysteries that had something out of the ordinary to say, or told the story in a different way, but now marketing's on to them and the possibilities of additional sales to book clubs or the promise of the publicity of awards.
As someone who loves a good mystery and relies on the shortlists provided by various awards to find new authors doing interesting things, I'm a likely target for the literary mystery label. It sucks me in every time.
The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge begins in a very promising way. A group of bodies are discovered by hunters in the snow. They've arranged themselves in a semi-circle, with their dead children at their feet, all poisoned except for the central figure who was shot, the weapon nowhere to be found. A French commissaire and a judge who specializes in hunting down cults are called out. There had been a similar incident in Switzerland, but the authorities there had hushed it up, but this murder/suicide happened in France and Schweigen, the cop, and Carpentier, the judge, are determined to bring the guilty to justice.
This was a solid beginning, with characters who could be complex and interesting and a story that could be exciting and involved. All that potential is wasted, however. Schweigen is a direct descendant of Larry, Curly or Moe, only without the nuance. He messes up every interrogation he takes part in and reacts to everything without regard for appropriate behavioral norms. Carpentier is absolutely perfect. She's stunningly beautiful, charismatic, intelligent, tiny and every character in this book falls madly in love with her, from her administrative assistant, to the commissaire, to the people she investigates for murder. It's boring. At one point it's mentioned that she doesn't like music and I grasped this as the sole indication that the judge was human. Of course, she then is then moved to tears by Wagner.
The writing is also problematic. No one walks or drinks; instead they ooze and guzzle. The judge, we are often reminded, is wee. Everyone she speaks with looms or towers or bends over her. The simpler verbs are ignored. Here is a discussion in a kitchen:
He bulged into the entire space between the freezer and the door, like the gigantic symbol of the Macrocosm. She found herself smiling back at his candour and impertinence. The Judge knew, she always knew, when a man was lying; she had a nose for perjury, and this man was made of truth.
Oh, and that intriguing beginning? We only ever learn anything about one of the dead bodies. The rest are forgotten. As is the plot. At the very end things are tied up briefly and in passing.
As someone who loves a good mystery and relies on the shortlists provided by various awards to find new authors doing interesting things, I'm a likely target for the literary mystery label. It sucks me in every time.
The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge begins in a very promising way. A group of bodies are discovered by hunters in the snow. They've arranged themselves in a semi-circle, with their dead children at their feet, all poisoned except for the central figure who was shot, the weapon nowhere to be found. A French commissaire and a judge who specializes in hunting down cults are called out. There had been a similar incident in Switzerland, but the authorities there had hushed it up, but this murder/suicide happened in France and Schweigen, the cop, and Carpentier, the judge, are determined to bring the guilty to justice.
This was a solid beginning, with characters who could be complex and interesting and a story that could be exciting and involved. All that potential is wasted, however. Schweigen is a direct descendant of Larry, Curly or Moe, only without the nuance. He messes up every interrogation he takes part in and reacts to everything without regard for appropriate behavioral norms. Carpentier is absolutely perfect. She's stunningly beautiful, charismatic, intelligent, tiny and every character in this book falls madly in love with her, from her administrative assistant, to the commissaire, to the people she investigates for murder. It's boring. At one point it's mentioned that she doesn't like music and I grasped this as the sole indication that the judge was human. Of course, she then is then moved to tears by Wagner.
The writing is also problematic. No one walks or drinks; instead they ooze and guzzle. The judge, we are often reminded, is wee. Everyone she speaks with looms or towers or bends over her. The simpler verbs are ignored. Here is a discussion in a kitchen:
He bulged into the entire space between the freezer and the door, like the gigantic symbol of the Macrocosm. She found herself smiling back at his candour and impertinence. The Judge knew, she always knew, when a man was lying; she had a nose for perjury, and this man was made of truth.
Oh, and that intriguing beginning? We only ever learn anything about one of the dead bodies. The rest are forgotten. As is the plot. At the very end things are tied up briefly and in passing.
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