The Judge and His Hangman by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

[Diane]

Rating: 4 stars


This is a compact mystery with lots of twists and turns. The main character is a terminally ill police commissioner who is investigating the murder of a colleague. The book is set in Bern, Switzerland.

Overall, a well-plotted book and a fun read. Probably even better when read in the original German.

[Kristel]

Read 2012 This short novella, by Swiss playwright and author, Friedrich Dürrenmatt features the ailing Inspector Barlach in this crime fiction that is not only entertaining but thought provoking. A police officer is found shot and dead in his car at the side of the road. There is an ancient wager between old friends. The nihilist and the moralist. It is a chess game to the end. I highly recommend this quick read of less than 100 pages if you like crime fiction.

[Pip]

This was amost enjoyable afternoon's read. I had not heard of Durrenmatt before and the pleasure of encountering his novella was unexpected. The wily detective who know much more than he lets on is pitted against the career criminal who believes that he can get away with murder. The smart young detective who uses modern methods in preference to old-fashioned gut instinct is an unwitting pawn in a deadly game of oneupmanship. And the question of what is justice and who should be the judge is largely writ.

[Gail]

I very much enjoyed reading this Swiss version of a detective novel. The main character Inspector Barlach is unique in his dependence on intuition, instinct and very old fashioned gum shoeing rather than any new forensic techniques. Further, he is not shown to be someone with very much charm. However, we slowly get to know him as we navigate the twists and turns of our finding out who did it. Barlach, surmises from the get go who did it and therefore, much of the tension and delight of the story is finding out what exactly Barlach is up to, what motivates him, what he is thinking and what he knows. The unraveling of the standard concept of legal justice is core to the novel.

[H]

This 1950s short story set in Bern, Switzerland was written by Dürrenmatt o counter the formulaic detective genre. The story has us follow Inspector Barlach as he attempts to solve the murder of his colleague Lieutenant Schmied.

It's a very short, compact novella that moves at a nice steady pace and keeps you engaged on every page. It throws up some thought-provoking moral questions 'Just how far should you go to catch a criminal?' and has a solid and satisfying ending.

I wasn't quite sure how to rate it, but I went with 4 stars in the end, because it was enjoyable and you do get a real sense of all the characters and their motives, which is quite a feat for such a short page count.

[Valerie]

read Dec. 2021

My goodness, I loved this. From the description on GR I was worried going in, that it would be dense and difficult to read. Instead it was very readable and compelling. It would be interesting to know if Durrenmatt was exposed to the American authors who were writing in the 'hard-boiled' school of mysteries a decade or so earlier. His fits nicely in there. The story is straight forward and to the point, but complex. For a novella there was a real sense of place, interesting details and characters you could get your teeth into. 5*

[Diane]

4 stars

I rather liked these two mysteries, there are not many on the list so it was a nice change of pace. I enjoyed the setting, time period and our inspector Mr. Barlach.

[[deleted user]]

4 Stars

Highly readable a different take on detective fiction with a flawed hero and excellent location.