Monday 25 March 2013

MAREK KRAJEWSKI - THE END OF THE WORLD IN BRESLAU (2009)


Blurb/synopsis..........

Breslau in the 1920s is haunt of marquises and merchants, gamblers and gutter-rats. Eberhard Mock, the hardened Criminal Councillor, fits right in as he sways from the basements of grubby casinos to his beautiful young wife in their palatial mansion.

But his beautiful young wife is feeling neglected. A series of sinister murders linked by the dates of past crimes has taken Mock out of the bedroom and into the archives. While Mock ransacks the city for clues, driven mad by the killer's tantalizing notes, his wife is seeking attention elsewhere. Engaging in perverted games with her less-than-innocent girlfriends, Mock's wife is being seduced by a mysterious sect which preaches the imminent end of the world.

The old adage; decide in haste repent at leisure is applicable to my taste in book acquisitions. Seduced once again by some intriguing covers and the promise of gaining a little bit of an understanding of the German psyche in between the two wars, just before the rise of fascism  I took the plunge and bought up a few of Krajewski’s Breslau novels.

I read the first Death In Breslau last year and whilst it wasn’t the worst book I have ever read it was a bit of a chore to be truthful.


Second book in the series, to be honest I loathed it. This was by far the least enjoyable book I have read this year and the most difficult to finish. Part of me wanted to throw the towel in and give up, but hey I’m no quitter, so struggled on manfully, swimming through treacle, reading about an investigator I didn’t care for trying to solve some murders I had no emotional investment in.


Mock.....a vile alcoholic, wife beater and rapist, may have the tenacity and intelligence to get his man in the end. He may possess other admirable qualities; loyalty and a sense of duty but when I balance the scales out, he’s just not someone I want to spend any time in the company of.


Sad to say, I do have the 3rd book – Phantoms In Breslau somewhere in the humungous pile of TBRs. Suffice to say though I won’t be digging it out any time soon, though the part of me that retains Catholic guilt syndrome will ensure I will have to read it at some point........maybe in another 10 years or so, when I’ve long forgotten this one.


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Bought sometime last year on the internet from some forgotten bookseller.

2 comments:

  1. Col - Sorry to hear this one was such a disappointment for you. Those covers...they'll get you every time. ;-)

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    1. Margot, not the first time I've been seduced by a cover, probably not the last either. The number of books I read there's an inevitability about hitting on a disappointing book now and then, though the book (and series) does have it's admirers judging by it's average rating on Amazon. Never mind, eh.

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