Take Drei Kriminalromane: Der Richter Und Sein Henker / Der Verdacht / Das Versprechen Constructed By Friedrich Dürrenmatt Presented In Text

Durrenmatt is one of those authors German children are likely to encounter in school, And, indeed, I have had to read one of his plays, and watch TV adaptations and listen to radio adaptations of various of his works.
This being in school, I hated it, of course,

I was wrong,

It's strange how I found myself wanting to read Durrenmatt again, The realisation that many of my own thoughts about plots and characters and stories were shaped by a writer whose work I only knew superficially convinced me to give him another shot.


Well, three shots, this being three books in one, Writing at a leisurely pace, using devices that are perhaps a little outdated, Durrenmatt has a distinctive way with language.
His characters feel real, but in a slightly poetic way, When they speak, you listen, His detectives are wise but weak, foolhardy, and sometimes without scruples,

The first of the stories, Der Richter und sein Henker, is one I had seen a TV movie of.
There is some clunky exposition Durrenmatt may have a distinctive and enjoyable voice, and a twisted but delightfully sinister view of the world, but man, does he ever use outdated plot devices.
Basically, it is a story of an old detective who has to deal with a murder, and who seems to know more about who is the murderer than anyone else.
The ending is beautifully twisted,

The second story, Der Verdacht, is about the same detective, now dying, who by pure coincidence hears of a suspicion that a famous doctor might be an escaped war criminal.
And he won't let go of that suspicion until he knows the truth, Of the three books, this was the only one I had never read / watched / heard before, It is also probably the weakest one, featuring too many happy coincidences, and some distinctly uncomfortable to read scenes featuring a dwarf.
It feels verys, having a sinister, monstrous, not actually human dwarf in a story,

Finally, Der Verdacht, which has been turned into various movies Es geschah am hellichten Tag with Heinz Ruehmann and Gert Froebe and The Pledge with Jack Nicholson, is quite possibly the darkest of the three offerings here.
The subtitle is "Requiem for the genre of crime novel", It is the story, as told by a retiring police comissioner, of a brilliant detective, and a serial child killer.
After making the promise to find justice and swearing on his very soul the detective is forced to pursue it on his own.
The police force are satisfied that a suspect was guilty, but the detective has doubts, He may be a brilliant detective, but he is also merciless, without scruples, and very, very cold and calculating.
He sets a trap and for a trap, one needs bait, The movies are harrowing, indeed, Es geschah am hellichten Tag is very famous and has been remade at least once.
Der Verdacht is more harrowing than the films, It may be a particularity of Swiss use of the German language, or it may be an outdated form, but the constant use of "das" in related to girls is eery.
Yes, it is "Das Maedchen", but not usually "Das Marie", or "Das Gritli" having "das" accompany the name feels somewhat wrong to my ears.
Then again, it'd sound normal for cutifications like "Gretchen", so I suppose Gritli is Swiss for the same.
SPOILER ALERT! The climax, which sees the police and prosecutors beat up the little girl, having used her as bait to a child killer, because they have run out of patience, is cold and brutal beyond anything I'd expected.
END SPOILER.

I enjoyed reacuainting myself with Durrenmatt, Despite some outdated tools in his writerly toolchest, he is a brilliant writer, whose work is excitingly original, twisted, and whose tone / use of language is measured and beautiful.
I'd recommend this book to anyone, Den Krimiklassiker Der Richter und sein Henker um Kommissar Bärlach und seinen Widersacher Gastmann schrieb Dürrenmatttatsächlich, um etwas daran zu verdienen.
Seitdem gehört das Buch zur Schullektüre,

Das Versprechen kennt man meistens nicht vom Lesen, sondern weil Gert Fröbe den bösen Kindermörder so faszinierend hilflosgrausam im Kinofilm spielte und weil ja auch Heinz Rühmann ganz passabel war.
Die politische und literarisch tatsächlich etwas schwächere BärlachFortsetzung Der Verdacht indes, die sich mit der Nachkriegszeit und ihrer NaziVergangenheit auseinander setzt, ist weitgehend unbekannt.
Jetzt endlich gibt es die Drei Kriminalromane bei Dürrenmatts Hausverlag Diogenes in einer schönen Aufmachung und in überaus handlichem Format in einem Band.
Und die präsentieren sich auch nach überJahren überraschend frisch,

Drei Kriminalromane ist ideal für alle, die wissen wollen, ob Der Richter und sein Henker immer noch so spannend wirkt wie bei der Schullektüre.
Oder die erkennen wollen, dass Dürrenmatt seine Figuren eigentlich psychologisch viel besser gezeichnet hat als Rühmann sie spielt.
Stefan Kellerer Friedrich Dürrenmattwas a Swiss author and dramatist, Dürrenmatt was born in the Emmental canton of Bern, the son of a Protestant pastor, His grandfather Ulrich Dürrenmatt was a conservative politician, The family moved to Bern in, Dürrenmatt began to study philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Zurich in, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester.
Inhe decided to become an author and dramatist and dropped his academic career, In, he wrote his first play, It is written, On Octoberhe married actress Lotti Geissler, She died inand Dürrenmatt was married again to another actress, Charlotte Kerr, the following year.
He was a proponent of epic theate Friedrich Dürrenmattwas a Swiss author and dramatist, Dürrenmatt was born in the Emmental canton of Bern, the son of a Protestant pastor, His grandfather Ulrich Dürrenmatt was a conservative politician, The family moved to Bern in, Dürrenmatt began to study philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Zurich in, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester.
Inhe decided to become an author and dramatist and dropped his academic career, In, he wrote his first play, "It is written",

On Octoberhe married actress Lotti Geissler, She died inand Dürrenmatt was married again to another actress, Charlotte Kerr, the following year.
He was a proponent of epic theater whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II.
The politically active author gained fame largely due to his avant garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire.
One of his leading sentences was: "A story is not finished, until it has taken the worst turn".
Dürrenmatt was a member of the Gruppe Olten, sitelink.