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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Murder without Reason,
By
This review is from: Critique of Criminal Reason: A Mystery (Hardcover)
I picked up the book after learning that the book featured Immanuel Kant as a character. How would a philosopher handle a serial murder case? My expectations were especially high given the fact that Kant was a champion of logic and reason during the age of Enlightenment. Would he assist (the protagonist of the novel was set to be a student of Kant's) solving the crime case with some novel application of logic?
The book in fact focuses on matters outside of reason. To be specific, the novel roughly evolves around three themes: 1) a fictional depiction of the character Kant in his last days, 2) description of the psychological burden the protagonist Hanno Stiffeniis carries, and of course 3) the investigation of the serial murder case. Kant in the novel is fascinated by human psychology that isn't explicable with reason. Similarly for the incident that weighs heavily on Stiffeniis, he finds himself incapable of explaining why he had behaved as he did (it will be revealed in the end that it was for understandable reasons however). The attribute present in these two observations influence the unfolding of the murder case as well: resolutions are given to the reader without providing clues for the reader to work out the mysteries her/himself. To be fair, Kant does bring rationality to the table. He endows Stiffeniis with his laboratory, which is taken in the novel as the birth of modern forensics. The laboratory was to collect evidence and to preserve parts of the victims when possible. However the introduction of the laboratory does little to imbue the novel with reason as the author strives foremost in construction of a chilling atmosphere. Speaking of atmosphere, it is what the novel most excels in. The author recreates the times at Konigsberg in a compelling manner. The book renders Stiffeniis realistically, as a man of intelligence though at times obnoxious and compulsive. The articulate depiction of the remains of the crimes and atmosphere are in my opinion enough to give the reader chills. All in all, the book makes for a good thriller. It is just not what one might expect from hearing its title and the name of the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
CSI Prussia,
By Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Critique of Criminal Reason: A Mystery (Hardcover)
"Reason does not work instinctively, but requires trial, practice, and instruction in order to gradually progress from one level of insight to another." Immanuel KantMichael Gregorio's first novel is set in the Baltic port city of Konigsberg, Prussia in 1804. What we think of today as a serial killer is on the loose. The city is in a state of panic and conspiracy theories ranging from a Napoleonic plot against Prussia to the work of the devil only add to the panic. A young, inexperienced Procurator (the Prussian equivalent of a magistrate) by the name of Hanno Stiffeniis, is summoned by Kaiser Frederick Wilhelm from his small town to assist in the investigation. As the name of the book suggests, Konigsberg's most famous citizen, the philosopher Immanuel Kant is behind Hanno's appointment. Hanno was once a star pupil of Kant and Kant believes that Hanno's reasoning abilities are critical to solving the crimes. What then follows is the literary birth of the science of forensic criminal investigation. Kant, aged 80 and in rapidly failing health, believes that crimes should be analyzed using what may be called a `critique of reason'. Hanno is a reluctant pupil who's instincts and sense of tradition cause him to think that time honored methods such as torture are the most expedient means to solve a crime. Yet, the bodies keep popping up and Hanno gradually learns to adopt Kant's methodology to the art of criminal investigation. Immanuel Kant once said that the use of reason is driven by three questions: "What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?" We see that process at work as the plot plays out. This is Gregorio's first novel and some of the prose (far from all) seems a bit leaden. But ultimately, Critique of Criminal Reason was a very enjoyable book that kept my attention throughout. Gregorio's bleak portrayal of the dank, winter-storm wracked city of Konigsberg was powerful as was his merging of the last year of Kant's life into a piece of fiction. There are some similarities here to Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose". However, the book that Critique of Criminal Reason bore the most resemblance to is Caleb Carr's "The Alienist". In the "Alienist" Carr takes us to the first uses of psychiatry as a forensic tool in solving crimes. Here Gregorio takes a look at the (fictional) birth of crime scene analysis. The Alienist was a wonderful book and Critique of Criminal Reason falls just a bit short of that mark. Nevertheless, Critique of Criminal is an excellent first novel that left me hoping his second effort will soon follow. Recommended. L. Fleisig
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The starry sky above my head and the obscurity deep within my soul,
By
This review is from: Critique of Criminal Reason (Paperback)
Readers familiar with philosopher Immanuel Kant have already recognized in the title the allusion to the "Critique of Pure Reason", Kant's most important philosophical work.
As often, I found the book by chance in the stalls of an airport bookstore and decided to buy because it appealed both as historical novel and as a specimen of the historical-figure-turned-detective genre. * This is the first of a series of police/thriller stories focused on the career of procurator Hanno Stiffeniis, who is also the main character of this novel. Set in 1804, in the turmoil of Napoleonic wars, the book is aspiring to be both a detailed picture of the period and a chronicle of the last days of the great German philosopher. * I won't reveal the plot, to avoid spoiling the reader's surprise. As a reader I enjoyed the book, but must confess it is just an extremely ordinary police novel. I just say it develops from a rephrase of a famous Kantian motto: "Two things fill my mind with wonder: the starry sky above my head and the moral law within my soul" in which the last part has been changed in "the obscurity deep within my soul". A variation on the theme of the Kantian "noumeno", the unknowable real essence? An improbable romantic or pre-romantic Kant? The darkness of the soul overcoming the light of the moral reason? The reader will have the chance to judge. The most interesting feature of the novel anyway is the description - historically correct as the writer is eager to assure - of last days of Immanuel Kant, in an implicit contrast with the most famous one of De Quincey in which Kant had been depicted as a living mummy. There's the loneliness of the man, his sense of frustration at the desertion of his most brilliant followers (Fichte) and the deep ingrained opinions of an old man... I believe the description of early XIX century Prussia (and obviously Koenigsberg) is far weaker. It has a strange aftertaste of a later period (say Restoration or 1830s) and a pervasive feeling of decadence. We're in the early years of the Romantic period, the waning days of the Enlightenment and that cultural milieu that we now call Ancien Regime... Napoleon's titanic personality, new ideas sweeping Europe, the last days of the Republic of Letters, of enlightened monarchs, Sturm und Drang and new Romantic ideas, ... What we find instead is a dirty, freezing and decaying city - as sinister and oppressive as in a story of Kafka. ** It is the fourth time I find Immanuel Kant as a fictional character. Aside from De Quincey's "Murder considered as a Fine art" and "The Last Days of Immanuel Kant", there's also the excellent "Recordando a Lampe" by Jose Luis De Juan and the not so good Wolfram Fleischhauer's "Das Buch in dem die Welt Verschwand" * In the last ten years a new literary branch has sprung from the tree of the police/thriller novel. The philosophical police story is still part of the genre but with a particularly distinct spirit. * In what the philosophical thriller is distinct from the usual police/crime genre? The most obvious feature is that the detective is a usually philosopher - sometimes, but more rarely, a famous writer - and moreover a historically real one: Aristotle for M.Doody, Giordano Bruno for Jacques Bonnet, Decartes for F.Serror and H.Seboga, Heidegger for J.P.Feinmann (this last not strictly thriller).... The second feature is that these novels usually appeal to a more "sophisticated" readership, who can enjoy both the plot and references to the philosopher's ideas In a way it can be said that with the philosophical novel the police story is coming of age: after all the Conan Doyle's Holmes is a proto-philosopher, with all his versatility in deductive logic. The genre tries to answer the age-old question: is philosophy truly a futile intellectual pastime with no use in the real world (the answer found in Aristophanes' "Clouds")? Or can the philosophical method be a compass to explore - and eventually change - the outside world? * If you kept reading to these last lines, there is a chance you may be interested in other novels of the same genre I had the chance to read - and that you may have read something that could appeal to my taste (if so your suggestions will be most welcome): ARISTOTLE Margareth Doody - "Aristotle Detective" By the same author and with Aristotle as main character "Poison in Athens" - "Aristotle and the Ring of Bronze" - "Aristotle and the Poetic Justice" - "Aristotle and the Mistery of Life" GIORDANO BRUNO Jacques Bonnet - "A l'Einseigne de l'Amitie" - Paris, 1582 philosopher Giordano Bruno is looking after a case of massacred family. I did read this novel in Italian translation: couldn't find any English edition DESCARTES Frederic Serror and Herio Saboga - "L'Echelle de Monsieur Descartes" (1999) I did read this novel in Italian translation: couldn't find any English translation KANT Thomas De Quincey - "The Last Days of Immanuel Kant" Thomas De Quincey - "On Murder considered as Fine Art" José Luis De Juan - "Recordando a Lampe" (2001) truly excellent and warmly recommended if you chance to find it! but unfortunately there's no English translation Wolfram Fleischhauer - "Das Buch in dem die Welt Verschwand" (2003)- The book that changed the world (that is "The Critique of Pure Reason"). A mediocre picaresque novel... HEIDEGGER Jose Pablo Feinmann - "La Sombra de Heidegger" (this last not strictly a crime story)- couldn't find any English translation And three outsiders: Guillame Prevost - "Le Sept crimes de Rome" (2000) with an unlikely Leonardo da Vinci as main character Estelle Mombrun - "Meurtre a Petit Plaisance" (1998) - couldn't find any English translation Luciano Canfora - "Un mestiere Pericoloso - La vita quotidiana dei filosofi greci" (2000)- an excellent essay most unfortunately still not translated into English with some startling hypoteses: did Aritotle commission the death of Alexander the Great? Was Decartes poisoned by the Gesuits? * You are most welcome if you can suggest other books about the same themes or just share your ideas and comments! Thanks for reading.
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