The Execution of Justice E-Book

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

• Herausgeber: Pushkin Vertigo
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Brilliant neo-noir from one of the greatest post-war writers of German A man is murdered in plain sight. But could it be the perfect crime? A respected professor is dead - shot in a crowded Zurich restaurant, in front of dozens of witnesses. The murderer calmly turned himself in to the police. So why has he now hired a lawyer to clear his name? And why has he chosen the drink-soaked, disreputable Spät to defend him? As he investigates, Spät finds himself obsessed, drawn ever deeper into a case of baffling complexity until he reaches a deadly conclusion: justice can be restored only by a crime. This is a captivating neo-noir classic from the master of the genre. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist, most famous for his plays The Visit and The Physicists, which earned him a reputation as one of the greatest playwrights in the German language. He also wrote four highly regarded crime novels - The Pledge, The Judge and His Hangman, Suspicion and The Execution of Justice, all of which will be published by Pushkin Vertigo.

Leseprobe

 

Whose dark or troubled mind will you step into next? Detective or assassin, victim or accomplice? How can you tell reality from delusion when you’re spinning in the whirl of a thriller, or trapped in the grip of an unsolvable mystery? When you can’t trust your senses, or anyone you meet; that’s when you know you’re in the hands of the undisputed masters of crime fiction.

Writers of the greatest thrillers and mysteries on earth, who inspired those that followed. Their books are found on shelves all across their home countries – from Asia to Europe, and everywhere in between. Timeless tales that have been devoured, adored and handed down through the decades. Iconic books that have inspired films, and demand to be read and read again. And now we’ve introduced Pushkin Vertigo Originals – the greatest contemporary crime writing from across the globe, by some of today’s best authors.

So step inside a dizzying world of criminal masterminds with Pushkin Vertigo. The only trouble you might have is leaving them behind.

THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE

Contents

Title PageIIIIIIPostscriptCopyright

I

Granted, I’m putting all this down in an orderly report—it’s the pedant in me maybe—so that the case can be closed. I want to force myself to go over one more time the events that led to the acquittal of a murderer and to the death of an innocent man. I want one more time to think through the steps I was lured into taking, the measures I took, the possibilities left undone. I want conscientiously to gauge whatever chances may still remain for the justice system. But above all I am writing this report because I have time, lots of time, two months at least. I’ve just returned from the airport (the bars I visited on the way don’t count, nor is my present condition of any consequence. I am dead drunk, but I’ll be sober in the morning). The huge machine, with Dr. honoris causa Isaak Kohler aboard, was rising into the night sky, howling, bellowing, toward Australia as I leapt from my VW, the safety off my revolver. It was one of his finest maneuvers to get that phone call through to me in time. Presumably the old man knew what I was up to; everybody knows I haven’t got the money to follow him.

So I have no choice but to wait till he comes back, sometime, in June or July maybe, to wait, to get drunk now and then, or frequently, depending on my finances, and to write, the only appropriate activity for a lawyer whose career is a total shambles. But the canton deputy is mistaken about one thing: Time won’t mend his crime, my waiting won’t mitigate it, my being drunk won’t blot it out, my writing won’t excuse it. By presenting the truth, I’ll fix it in my mind, enabling me at some point—in June, as I said, or in July or whenever he comes back (and he will come back)—to do deliberately, whether drunk or sober, what I was going to do just now purely on impulse. The report is meant not just to provide evidence of a murder but to prepare for one as well. For a just murder.

Sober and back again in my study: Justice can be restored only by a crime. That afterward I’ll have to commit suicide is unavoidable. Not that I intend to avoid responsibility; on the contrary, it is the only responsible way to act—if not in a legal sense, then in a humane one. Possessing the truth, I cannot prove it. I lack witnesses to the critical moment. If I take my own life, it will make it easier for me to be believed even without witnesses. I do not approach death like some scientist executing himself in an experiment for the sake of science. I die because I have thought my situation through to its conclusion.