The first book in a planned series of post-war literary crime novels, DEATH OF A FOREIGN GENTLEMAN by Steven Carroll was released in April 2024. Not sure when the next one is due for release but I'll be standing by for it when it arrives.
Set in 1947, in Cambridge England, German philosopher Martin Friedrich is riding his bicycle through an intersection when he's hit and killed by a speeding car, which promptly left the scene. The only clues available to DS Stephen Minter when he is assigned to this case, are a possible partial number plate, an unrecognised driver, equally unknown screaming female passenger, and no immediate motive.
Setting the novel in the immediate aftermath of WWII, Carroll works a lot of societal commentary into this effortlessly. Minter, around whom much of the narrative is based, came to the UK before the war with his Austrian Jewish parents, who were then confined in enemy alien camps, where they subsequently died in custody. The unexpected return from the US of love interest Brigid Delaney, with her own war trauma stories, to say nothing of a failed attempt to leave Minter behind, sees them slip back into being a couple, planning a future around a case which it turns out she can help with (her past in the war effort is secretive). The victim, Friedrich, who had been in Cambridge to teach, has more than a few controversies in his past. His membership of the Nazi party, philosophical viewpoints, attitude to women in general, and two in particular, who had loved him all raise suspicion, and in the case of the women, Minter's sympathy and compassion. Amongst the locals, Sir Alec Grainger is a deeply racist, aristocratic character, one of those supremely offensive upperclass twits that are so sniffy about foreigners and yet, so willing to pick and choose their involvements. Then there's Pinkie, the local spiv, a wheeler and dealer, flash sort of a lad, who failed the military medical, found more questionable means to survive, and fell for a girl who was looking in other directions. Pinkie's on first-name terms with Sir Alec, a purveyor the finer things in life, origins unquestioned, and a lonely, and conflicting character.
If on reading this novel you're feeling some sense of deja-vu, it could very well be the hat tips to Graham Greene throughout (although I confess it wasn't until way into it that the spiv styled character "Pinkie", finally dragged BRIGHTON ROCK out of the faltering memory banks. In the acknowledgements Carroll does say that this novel is "in some ways a salute" (which was a bit of a relief because my reading of Greene's novels was a long time ago). Overall, the "literary" stylings of this novel make it a somewhat different undertaking from a traditional police procedural story of a similar period. The pacing is more languid and intricate than may be expected, with switching around between various perspectives and storylines, the "procedural" aspects sometimes taking a very distant back seat to analysis, contemplation and commentary. There are also references galore to other books and authors - not just various works by Graham Greene. There were the occasional Shakespearean references and undoubtedly a lot of others that passed this reader by. None of which means that this sort of structure and styling doesn't show up time and time again in crime fiction of all types, it felt like it allowed the publisher to apply "literary", whilst acknowledging that at it's heart this is a procedural crime fiction novel. There is a death, a victim, the victim's life provides clues, his associates stories, the detective a trail and there is an answer. There are also overtones of just desserts, because the answer itself might not that hard to work out. This is definitely not a who or how novel, and the why is overtaken by a lot of whats. What leads to..., what are the consequences of..., what does this mean.
There have been, over the years, many attempts at literary crime fiction, many of which have profoundly annoyed this reader with pretentious overtones and a real frisson of noses being looked down. Which is possibly why this novel dwelt on the lists for a while before being picked up. For this reader though, DEATH OF A FOREIGN GENTLEMAN engenders no nasal or attitudinal warnings. It was playful and cleverly constructed, providing a complex campanologist's soundscape to work my way through.
Death of a Foreign Gentleman
Who killed Martin Friedrich? From award-winning writer Steven Carroll comes the first book in a series of post-war literary crime novels featuring Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, with shades of The Third Man and Brighton Rock .
Cambridge, UK, 1947. Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher who is in Cambridge to give a series of lectures, is cycling through an intersection on his way to give a lecture when a speeding car runs through him and kills him. A grisly death for one of the finest minds of the age. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born, cockney Jew, whose parents were interned during the war as enemy aliens, stands over the body of Friedrich contemplating the age-old question - who did it? Because Friedrich might be one of the finest minds of his age, but he's also problematic. A brilliant philosopher whose lectures attracted students from all over Europe before the war and is regarded as the founder of modern existentialism, Friedrich was also, in the 1930s, a member of the Nazi Party.
As Stephen is soon to discover, there is no shortage of suspects. Friedrich -arrogant, a womaniser dedicated solely to his own work over anything or anybody else - was hated by almost everybody, even those who loved him. Is there any sense to his death - a logic to the sequence of events that led to it - or was his death just a case of rotten, random luck? Has the universe spoken, and, in this sense, should Friedrich be pleased with the nature of his death as it is, after all, confirmation of his life's observations on our indifferent, random universe? Or are there more sinister factors at work? From one of Australia's finest, critically-acclaimed writers, The Death of an Existentialist is a playful mixture of detective story, farce and literary fiction that examines the quite serious question of how to live a meaningful life in an indifferent, random, post-god world.