The Chinaman-Friedrich Glauser

The Chinaman
Friedrich Glauser
Bitter Lemon, Feb 2008, $14.95
ISBN: 1904738214

In Bern, Switzerland James Farny’s corpse is found lying on top of the recently buried wife of the poorhouse warden; the doctor pronounces it is suicide due to a self inflicted shot into the heart. The Bern police brass is content with supporting the “official” ruling.

However, Bern Police Sergeant Jakob Studer notices some odd anomalies starting with no bullet hole torn through the victim’s clothing though he is fully clad and yet shot in the heart. Studer also recognizes Farny as a person he remembers seeing several months ago in the tiny village of Pfrundisberg because the man predicted his demise to his associates. As Studer investigates while his superior fumes but knows better than to interfere with his best and most frustrating cop, clues lead Studer to realize the prime suspects in what he believes is murder reside at the poorhouse, a horticultural college, and the Sun Inn where he first “met” Farny.

The latest translation of a Studer police procedural (see IN MATTO’S REALM, FEVER and THUMBPRINT) is a fabulous tale in which the intelligent dedicated cop works out the homicide by analyzing the interrelationships motives between the victim and those at the three locales and their potential motives for committing a murder. Although Studer’s technique has been used quite often since THE CHINAMAN was first released in the late 1930s, the vivid look into Swiss society with Hitler beginning to spread his Third Reich vision across the continent makes the tale feel like a fresh historical whodunit.

Harriet Klausner