Description
Book SynopsisWhen two women are "accidently" 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. "Fever", a European crime classic, was first published in 1936. It has been translated into four languages. This is its first publication in English and the third in the "Sergeant Studer" series published by Bitter Lemon Press.
Trade 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"
