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Death in Breslau: An Inspector Mock Investigation Hardcover – September 4, 2012

by Marek Krajewski (Author), Danusia Stok (Translator)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 80 ratings
Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
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Introducing one of the most stylish and moody historic detective series ever: The Inspector Eberhard Mock Quartet

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby ...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate.

But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence.

And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades ...
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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Melville International Crime
  4. Publication date
    September 4, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6.29 x 0.95 x 9.33 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1612191649
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1612191645
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Marek Krajewski goes far beyond the police procedural in a novel that confronts the infinitely more terrible crimes to come.” —The Barnes & Noble Review from the Editors’ Picks for Best Fiction of 2012

"This intelligent, atmospheric crime novel, which flashes forward to such events as the 1945 Dresden firebombing and the beginnings of the cold war, possesses a distinctly European, Kafkaesque sensibility."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"As noir as they get. This complex and atmospheric thriller will find many fans, who will eagerly await the rest of Krajewski's Breslau quartet." —The Independent

It ought to be inappropriate to enjoy reading about Nazis this much. But fascists make good foils... Characters who survived under such predatory conditions had to possess a cunning and guile."—The Boston Globe

"It promises to be a great quartet."—Globe and Mail

"Krajewski's wonderfully laconic style and his painterly descriptions of place and character tether even the most overwrought scenes to a palpable reality." — B&N Review

"Krajewski’s thriller...will intrigue and compel readers to its end." —New York Daily News

"Atmosphere and piquant period detail saturate the pages, and push these books into the upper echelons of literary crime ... Krajewski's lacerating narrative performs the key function of the skilful novelist: providing an entree into a world far from our own." —The Times

"Krajewski has Mankell's sharp eye for detail, but he has, too, a more sophisticated frame of reference that may intrigue fans of Umberto Eco and Boris Akunin...Death In Breslau is a stylish, intelligent and original addition to the canon." —Financial Times

"Reminiscent of Georg Grosz...Death In Breslau isn't just an exciting mystery, it's the story of lost Fatherland...wonderful." —The Guardian

"The city of Breslau is as much a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it...This addictive soup has an air of the burlesque about it." —The Daily Telegraph

"Krajewski relishes the period detail as takes us from bloody interrogation cells to Madame LeGoef's sweaty bordello ... above all you get the sense that Krajewski is enjoying teasing and tormenting us with numerous examples of the violent coming together of eroticism and the body-politic. In this respect, Death in Breslau is strongly reminiscent of Alain Robbe-Grillet's Repetition... What's haunting about Krajewski's book, however, is that the worst was yet to come." —Independent on Sunday

"Atmospheric and uncompromising, it is noir with its dark underbelly fully exposed" —Criminal Element

About the Author

MAREK KRAJEWSKI was born in Wroclaw (formerly Breslau), Poland, on September 4, 1966. He is the author of five novels in the Breslau series, which have been translated into fourteen languages and won Poland’s top literary and crime prizes. Krajewski is a former lecturer in Classical Studies at the University of Wroclaw.

DANUSIA STOK is the translator of the Inspector Mock series, Death in Breslau, as well as The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowsi.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Melville International Crime (September 4, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1612191649
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1612191645
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.29 x 0.95 x 9.33 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 80 ratings

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3.6 out of 5 stars
80 global ratings

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Customers find the book entertaining and interesting. However, opinions differ on the story quality - some find it good but convoluted, while others consider it an innovative thriller and mystery.

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5 customers mention "Value for money"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book entertaining and engaging.

"...Fabulous! Krajewski juxtaposes high-mindedness and debasement, the present and the past, the sacred and the profane, etc.,..." Read more

"...in Breslau: An Eberhard Mock Investigation by Marek Krajewski is well worth reading...." Read more

"It is an interesting book but author tried to pack too much into a single volume..." Read more

"Fantastic." Read more

7 customers mention "Story quality"4 positive3 negative

Customers have different views on the story quality. Some find it an innovative thriller that goes beyond routine, while others feel the telling is confusing and convoluted. The plot is criticized for poor characterization and convoluted storytelling.

"Great mystery ." Read more

"...because I am have difficulty with European names, the story is also somewhat convuleted...." Read more

"I found the time of the story interesting, pre World War II. Revenge for something that happened almost 500 years earlier seemed a bit strange...." Read more

"I finished it just to see if it ever got any better. The story may have been good but the confused and convoluted telling rendered it a moot..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • babashopper
    5.0 out of 5 stars It has it all!
    Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I just finished reading the first two books in the Marek Krajewski quartet---DEATH in BRESLAU and THE END of the WORLD in BRESLAU. Fabulous! Krajewski juxtaposes high-mindedness and debasement, the present and the past, the sacred and the profane, etc., and all with great skill and artistry. Somehow, through the author's alchemy, the reader finds the main character, Eberhard Mock, likable, despite his gross flaws. This series is smart, intelligent, accessible, entertaining, and both sensual and sensuous. The descriptions of the many meals made me think of Proust's madeleine; but, whereas Proust gives the reader a tidbit to taste, Krajewski gives us a feast. The frequent mentioning of street names and landmarks traversed by the characters in pursuit of the plot might have been tedious, but it wasn't. Although German is not a beautiful language, the repeated stringing together of these names left me with a sense more of a mesmerizing Church litany than of a boring listing. Today, I'll be starting the third book in this series---PHANTOMS of BRESLAU---and shall soon preorder the fourth and last---THE MINOTAUR'S HEAD.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Moggie
    3.0 out of 5 stars Death in Breslau
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I found the names of the characters were dificult to seperate possibly because I am have difficulty with European names, the story is also somewhat convuleted. Still I persisted with the book and in the last few chapters started to understand the character fully.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Thomas Edsall
    4.0 out of 5 stars Innovative Thriller -- Goes Well Beyond Routine
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2013
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    Death in Breslau: An Eberhard Mock Investigation by Marek Krajewski is well worth reading. He develops a new take with nuanced, unpredictable characters in the familiar territory of pre-war Europe and Germany in particular. Would have gotten five starts except for some over the top plot twists.
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  • Sean M. Gallagher
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not so much ...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2012
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    I finished the book because I wanted to understand the conclusion, but mostly because I didn't have a more interesting book available to me. If I had, I doubt I would have finished it.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Maria
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2021
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    Great mystery .
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  • Michael Vax
    3.0 out of 5 stars I would have given it 5 stars if he could stop 100pages earlier
    Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2014
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    It is an interesting book but author tried to pack too much into a single volume
    There were several points closer to the end that seems to be good endings. By novel is going on and on...
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  • Robert Carraher
    4.0 out of 5 stars An atmospheric noir novel from a Europe in the grips of fear.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2012
    Conjuring visions of rain slick leather trench coats, decadent Nazi night clubs and brothels, secret cults and ancient curses. Marek Krajewski gives us an atmospheric noir novel from a Europe in the grips of fear. Fear of the Gestapo, fear of our neighbors, fear of the occult and fear of wakening the next day to only find that things can get worse.

    Death In Breslau is a historic crime novel set in the pre WWII German city of Breslau (now the Polish city of Wroc³aw) and is part of the Breslau quartet which has won rave reviews from readers and critics in Germany, England and Poland. This is the first English translation and will be welcomed by literary, crime fiction and historical mystery readers alike.

    The book tells the story of the rape and murder of a young noble woman, Marietta von der Malten, and her maid, found slaughtered in a way that suggests a ritual killing. The women are discovered in a luxury train car, there bellies sliced open and scorpions placed inside to leave them to die a horrible death. Police Criminal Counselor Eberhard Mock is interrupted during his weekly visit to a brothel serving "discerning tastes" where he plays chess with a bevy of prostitutes to lead the investigation at the behest of the young noble woman's father, the Baron von Malten, an influential local force in the community.

    Mock is a Silesian - a state in south western Poland that throughout its history has been part of Germany, Poland, Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Prussia - and the son of a humble shoemaker. He is a student of Classical Studies who attended the University of Breslau but did not graduate. He joined the local police force and quickly rose through the ranks thanks to protection from the local masonic lodge. He was able to further his career through gathering `dirt' on the most important people in business, politics and the shady underground of German Breslau. Though not physically threatening- he is short and fat - he has a reputation of brutality and having the right people in a "vice"; he knows everyone's dirty little secrets.

    Mock bulldozes his way through the case which leads him to a local Jewish pet shop owner, who may or may not have information of those who deal in exotic pets, scorpions for instance. But the investigation is soon cut short when Mock's Nazi underling arrests the Jewish shop keeper and his daughter and the shop keeper dies while being `questioned'. Mock is bribed into accepting a promotion to go along with this charade as hanging the notorious crime on an epileptic Jew serves the Nazi propaganda machine just fine. But a few weeks later comes the Night of the Long Knives, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with anti-Nazis, `sexual deviants', and leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary brown shirts. Among those to fall were people that had impeded Mock's investigation.

    The case in reopened in secret and a young and tenacious investigator is brought in from Berlin. Herbert Anwaldt is an orphan and an alcoholic prone to spates of madness and excess but he quickly, under Mock's tutelage, winds he way through the corrupt passages littered with people in high places, members of secret societies, religious occultism, every conceivable sexual persuasion and finds himself eventually stepping on Gestapo toe's and tortured to the point of insanity to uncover the secret to the murder and a 700 year old quest of vengeance buried in an ancient Muslim sect.

    The novel is a welcome study in the noir genre set against the background of pre WWII Nazi Germany and filled with an atmosphere of darkness and dread. The reader would be well served to be somewhat familiar with the point in time and place where the story is set. Breslau/Wroc³aw is an ancient city founded at the cross roads of the Via Regia and the Amber Road - the first an important trade route between western Asia, through eastern Europe and ending up in western Europe, the Amber Road, as the name suggests, was the route followed by the merchants transporting amber, an important raw material, which was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, and Egypt thousands of years ago, and long after. The Oder River dissects Breslau and was one of the important waterways that served this purpose.

    The city has always been multi-ethnic,being peopled with Poles, Bohemians, Germans, Prussians and many other groups. It has also been multi-religious, being one of the most important centers of German Jews, producing artists, musicians and scholars, it also is home to a strong Catholic influence as well as a Protestant one. In many ways it is a cross roads between west and east, Europe and Asia, and also a place where many ideas meet. A perfect setting, a microcosm of conflict and harmony, for a novel that is not really a historical detective story - it does not delve deeply into the history of the city or the area - but a Chandleresque/hardboiled story set against a historical point in time.

    The plot is mostly linear, with flashbacks and flash forwards that reveal the motivation and consequences of the characters. The chapters tend to be short and filled with either psychological suspense or edge of the seat action. The sparse dialog is exactly right and the story is told third person as a narrative which serves to paint the times as a corrupt and decadent place where men of ugly means still manage to possess admirable traits. It will be a pleasure to wait for further translations from Krajewski and especially the Breslau Quartet.

    The Dirty Lowdown
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  • Noodles
    2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2015
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    Poor characterization. Boring plot. Contrived.
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  • 異人
    3.0 out of 5 stars 悪人だらけの物語
    Reviewed in Japan on July 3, 2018
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    殺人事件の動機が十字軍の虐殺にあるという珍しい推理小説で、第二次世界戦争前後の本体の部分も面白いが、途中で何人かが残忍に間引きされても、５０人以上の登場人物は頭の中でなかなか整理しきれません。Harnter 博士が Hartner 博士とおのじ博士であることも要注意。
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  • eiamjw
    2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2014
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    A dull and unpleasant tale. It is either badly translated, or the translator is aiming to give it an exotic feel, but either way, the language is very stilted and it's not a pleasure to read.

    The only good thing is that it concludes with a strange, rushed history of what happens to all the characters in the rest of their lives, so at least we won't be bothered by a follow up.

    Philip Kerr is far preferable, despite his longueurs.
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  • Stafford Steve
    3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed response to investigator Mock
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2013
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    Interested in detective novels beyond the works of Conan Doyle, sorry to have read so little European work even in translation, and as a student of German history, I came to this Polish exploration of a once German now Polish city with several expectations which were initially sustained but which seemed to get lost as the Middle East aspects seemed to muddy the waters. If I hadn't wanted to know more about pre-war Breslau I might never have gotten through the central sections. The fantastical elements seemed to me to detract from the infighting between the establishment and the newly in power Nazi officials, a central element given Mock is an outsider from Berlin who realises he's being set up. But by the end I was glad I had made the effort and I have already started to read the next volume, which must say something about the novel. Give this try. Mock isn't Holmes, but then neither is he Wallander. If you enjoyed Harris' Fatherland novel you might just warm to this, though Krajewski' work is far more complex and the prose far more dense (for good or ill).
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  • Matt McG
    4.0 out of 5 stars Dark, dark, dark
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2014
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    The gloomy and decadent Breslau setting is definitely the star of the show - the policing takes a back seat.
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  • Alan Smith
    2.0 out of 5 stars I found the names and plot very confusing and the ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2016
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    I found the names and plot very confusing and the characters all have some strange perversions which seems a little contrived.
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