Customer Reviews

Critique of Criminal Reason

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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.

"Reason does not work instinctively, but requires trial, practice, and instruction in order to gradually progress from one level of insight to another." Immanuel Kant

Michael 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

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.
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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.
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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"
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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.
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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?
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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?
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You are most welcome if you can suggest other books about the same themes or just share your ideas and comments!
Thanks for reading.

"Inside the ample glass jar, the severed head lolled in a swirling sea of cloudy preserving alcohol. Tangled gray-red sinews, clots of blood and gore shifted gently in the straw-colored liquid like the trailing tendrils of a jellyfish."

Something fiendish had happened to the victim; his head preserved a secret only the finest mind might discern.

It is February, 1804. Hanno Stiffeniis, a magistrate in Lotingen, Prussia, is summoned by King Frederick Wilhelm III to Königsberg. "Our beloved Königsberg (is) in a grip of terror," the King writes. The summons takes Stiffeniis completely by surprise.

Stiffeniis sets up headquarters at the Fortress of Königsberg. The basement, where prisoners are herded to an uncertain fate, reminds Stiffeniis of Hades; "the upper floors were as confusing as the maze of Crete. Gloomy, ill-lit passages shot off left and right of the main corridor, no feature distinguishing one way from any of the others."

That seems to describe the investigation into the strange murders in Königsberg. Which way to turn? Some believed Napoleon was planning to invade Prussia and was leaving a calling card of terror. Others proposed not a political but a spiritual cause. All of the victims (just a handful, but unsettling in the extreme) were killed as they were kneeling; the cause of death was unknown but rumor was spreading that the Devil's Claw had done them in.

Stiffeniis tells the tale, and what a tale it is, involving not-soon-forgotten characters such as an albino prostitute; Dr. Vigilantius, a necromancer and follower of Emmanuel Swedenborg; and Immanuel Kant himself, now retired and sickly, who is collecting the heads of the victims.

Heady stuff, indeed, this "Critique of Criminal Reason" ($25.95 in hardcover from Thomas Dunne Books) by Michael Gregorio, a philosophy professor who lives in Italy. Gregorio draws on the new authoritative biography of Kant by Manfred Kuehn and interweaves invented characters and real personages into the lives of Kant and Stiffeniis.

Immanuel Kant is one of the giants of philosophy, an exponent of pure reason who famously wrote that all rational beings would wish to do away with emotion since it leads right thinking astray. According to the Kuehn biography, Kant wrote a little-known work, "Dreams of a Spirit-Seer," in which he seemed to mock Swedenborgian spirituality; in "Critique of Criminal Reason" Kant tells Stiffeniis that it's "the only book of mine for which I have ever apologized."

In the story, Kant himself has called Dr. Vigilantius to "listen" to the corpse of one of the victims and Kant who sets up a clandestine laboratory in which he collects the heads-in-jars. This is a side of Kant that seems very much out of character with the little man of Königsberg whose daily walks were so carefully timed residents could set their clocks. But Kuehn confirms that the elderly Kant was working on a manuscript at the time of his death that attempted to unite his metaphysics with physics, the natural world. Gregorio deftly uses this device to deepen the mystery surrounding the last days of Kant, who, in the story, becomes obsessed with the idea writing about "murder without motive," "cold-blooded murder."

The revelation of the murderer is satisfying but not surprising; in a way the story is more about the secret side of Kant and of Stiffeniis when faced with the mesmerizing aspect of Death, and the central importance of love. This "Critique" is engaging and thought-provoking. I'm assigning it as homework.

Copyright 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.

Michael Gregorio's _Critique of Criminal Reason_ is an interesting book with a number of virtues, but ultimately a disappointing book which I would not recommend.

Gregorio's novel, placed in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, in Russia), has Procurator Stiffiniis, a young protégé of the philosopher Immanual Kant, struggling with Kant's help to solve a serial murder case which is terrorizing the city in 1804. Gregorio has a good ability to narrate events, to describe people (both their physical and behavioral characteristics), and to capture settings and environments. He also spins his tale in a suspenseful and captivating manner. Thus the book was an enjoyable read. After one finishes the book, however, and reflects on what it promises versus what it accomplishes, one is ultimately disappointed.

Immanuel Kant described his philosophical accomplishment in his _Critique of Pure Reason_ as a "Copernican revolution." And indeed Kant's significance for philosophy in the centuries following the publication of his three _Critiques_ was such that, for example, my undergraduate philosophy major required a semester-long course on the first _Critique_. Unfortunately, although Gregorio includes many interesting details about Kant and his last days, the novel fails, first of all, to give the reader any insight into what Kant's critical philosophy was all about. There are numerous references in the book to Kant as the great proponent of reason, but nothing to indicate to the reader the nature of Kant's critique of various kinds of reason. Closely related is the second major failure, viz., to provide anything like a Kantian "critique of criminal reason" in the novel.

The hypothesis of the book is that Kant had been stimulated in his last years to begin a new investigation (the critique of criminal reason) based on the idea that cold-blooded, unmotivated murder can be a uniquely stimulating human experience--an idea that had been expressed to him by Stiffiniis based on his observation of the execution of Louis XVI in Paris. There is frequent assertion that Kant has invented a new mode of criminal investigation (which doesn't seem to involve much more than trying to observe all the facts surrounding a crime and also trying to gain some kind of insight into the psychology of the criminal). And there seems to be a running ambivalence throughout the novel as to whether logic alone is adequate to explain this kind of crime. But there is no "critique of criminal reason"--that is, there is no philosophical or psychological insight, either from Kant or from Stiffiniis, that goes beyond the initial idea that for some people cold-blooded, unmotivated murder can be an end in itself. Thus, in the end, the book is another story of a serial killer eventually tracked down through a combination of rather mundane detection and a series of helpful developments.

There are other flaws in the book, but in my opinion the failure to be true in any significant sense to the true nature of critical philosophy is the fatal flaw. Readers who have some knowledge of Kantian philosophy will be disappointed by the absence while readers with no such knowledge are likely to come away from the book with a serious misunderstanding of what Kant was all about.

In the first book in this intelligent and fascinating series, the reader is quickly plunged into the midst 1803 investigation of a string of murders in Konigsberg, Prussia. Hanno Stiffeniis, a rural procurator, finds himself mysteriously and peremptorily ordered by King William III to report "with all haste" to the ancient city held in a "grip of terror".

Stiffeniis has been recommended to the King by an "imminent person", which turns out to be aged Immanuel Kant, whom he knows from a brief but intense meeting seven years earlier. Something about that meeting caused such concern that Kant's lawyer had written to Stiffeniis and demanding that he never communicate with the old philosopher again. Dark hints are dropped as well that Stiffeniis had a hand in his brother's untimely death.

Mystery swirls around the murders. Are they part of a Jacobin plot to destabilize the Prussian state? Or are the killings the work of a madman? Stiffeniis does meet, of course, with Kant who has also engaged the aid of a doctor engaged in paranormal "science" and primitive pathology. Does Kant really put stock in the doctor's hocus pocus wherein he appears to speak with the spirit of the most recently deceased victim? Has Kant's great mind finally broken under the strain of decades of heroic sustained effort? Has he suddenly changed his philosophical views on death's door?

Stiffeniis also has to struggle with the brutal methods of the Prussian military in handling his prisoners, but his own missteps lead to tragic results that pile one on top of another.

The identity and motive of the killer are well-hidden. Any number of characters seem like plausible candidates at one time or another: Stiffeniis's assistant, Kant's former assistant Martin Lampe, a luridly sensuous albino prostitute, and even Kant himself (!). Even once the murders are solved, the mystery concerning Stiffeniis's brother remains. His own parents turned bitterly and irredeemably against him, but why?

The book contains a number of historical characters in addition to Kant, including his lawyer Jachmann, and his former live-in aide Lampe, who really was fired about two years before Kant's death. The telling of the tale magnificently recreates the lost world of inflexible bureaucratic militaristic Prussia, the debauched denizens of an early 18th century port city's waterfront, the vast chasm of separating the well-to-do burghers from the multitudes living in Third World class poverty. The story also oozes appropriate amounts of creepiness.

Critique of Criminal Reason is an extremely well-written and intelligent murder mystery - but don't worry, you don't need to know Kant's philosophy to appreciate the story. Highest recommendation.

than read (in my case, some months ago).

Actually, as reviewer Amore says, there's nothing of Kant's philosopy in the book, which struck me as very disjointed and not genuinely atmospheric but generically or cheaply so, if you will: there's one sentence uttered by Anna Rostova on page 196 of the PB ed ("Prussia, homeland of the whip and the cane!") which epitomizes the whole story's tone: wintry, savage, dark, slimy in a frozen way. That's atmospheric all right, but it remains to be seen whether it depicts Koenigsberg as it really was or if it is used merely as a setting for the dark language of the tale, which is full of "cried"/"hissed"/"glazed faces"/"gouged eyes"/"inflamed flesh"/"macabre exhibits"/"monstruous mementoes", tortures galore, and so on and on ad nauseam (for example "as moths and insects threw themselves wildly at the candlelight, dying in an unending sequel of flashes of light and sharp crackles" to describe a homely scene's background).

However, despite all its faults and abusing a very worn theme, I now wish to read it again -I think I might appreciate better some details-, which means that for some reason it impressed me more that I felt to be the case at the time.

So there you have it: perhaps in the future, if and when I reread Gregorio's book, I'll edit my review to four stars. I wouldn't however buy another of his novels, unless Procurator Stiffenis were involved in a case featuring Fichte -which is mentioned here in passing- or Hegel (he'd be too old for the mature Nietzsche).

I purchased Critique of Criminal Reason after reading Gregorio's follow-up: Days of Atonement. Since Hanno's work with Kant was mentioned through-out Atonement, I felt compelled to go back.

I was well rewarded for my efforts. In Critique of Criminal Reason Hanmo Stefaniis the Magistrate from a quiet town is summoned to solve a series of murders. The philosopher Kant is Hanno's benefactor and mentor. Together, they work to solve the mystery.

Kant figures well throughout the book. We see what life is like in Prussia of the early 19th century. The power of government is singular and Hanno uses and at times, abuses these powers to seek his killer.

Literate, powerful and thought provoking. Critique of Criminal Reason will hold your attention throughout. Gregorio is worth reading!

Michael Gregorio is a professor of philosophy and lives in Italy; this is his first mystery.

Gregorio has created an uncannily realistic story of horrible murders and the beginnings of forensic crime scene analysis. It is a freezing cold February in 1804, and magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis is summoned from his small town to Konigsberg by an edict from the Kaiser himself, to come and solve a series of mysterious murders. His mentor and the man who encouraged him to study law, the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, lives in Konigsberg. Now elderly, he lives a solitary life with only a servant for company.

It turns out that Kant had requested Hanno to work on the case--and eerily directs his work on the case, showing him severed heads with wounds, drawings of the crime scenes, and part of the murder weapon removed from a corpse. At that time it was common to solve a murder by torturing a suspect until they confessed, rather than examining evidence scientifically.

There are innumerable twists and turns in this plot. Was it a conspiracy by pro-Bonaparte terrorists, or the acts of a mad witch? More people are murdered by diverse methods, including people close to the case. Were they victims of the original killer? Hanno's mind changes daily as to who might be responsible. The horrible truth comes out with the discovery of a mangled corpse devoured by starving wolves in the outskirts of the city--and Hanno must write this report to the Kaiser.

This educated historical mystery has been compared the Alienist by Carr and the work of Umberto Eco.

Armchair Interviews says: Gregorio has created a wonderful and dark world of criminals and analysis, one which you won't easily forget.

This is a wonderful historical mystery ... for the most part. Written in crisp 1st person prose, the "CSI of Ostpreußen" is gripping and terrifically atmospheric - very Tim Burton-esque. HOWEVER, one wonders if the author ever really investigated the real Konigsberg. I'm dumbfounded at some basic mistakes and omissions:

1) Even in the 18th century, Koenigsberg a beautiful and charming place - a quaint medieval city on the Baltic with lovely promenades and a lake/park. The "fortress" was never an ugly or "abominable" monstrosity as the author describes, but rather a mix of 13th - 18 century romanesque and gothic structures. The fortress church was beautiful, and large parts of the fortress were luxuriously appointed to host the Prussian royalty when the returned to East Prussia for state visits. Friedrich Wilhelm had garden terraces placed around the facade. Being Italian, I guess the author thinks only Mediterranean cities have any beauty.

2) Whats with the picture of Berlin and the St. Hedwig church on the cover, instead of Konigsberg and Kant's cathedral? BOOO on the publisher and cover designer.

3) The author likes throwing in little Koenigsberg historical trivia, but even these are often wrong. A GLARING example: He talks about mathematician Euler's "9 Bridges of Koenigsberg Problem" ... only trouble is its "7 Bridges."

4) He talks about Kants house on Magesterstaße. The Magesterstraße is on the Kneiphof Island in the center of the city. The island is NEVER mentioned.

Better historical research is definitely warranted, but an entertaining book nonetheless. Koenigsberger oldtimers and afficiandos will be perplexed by the numerous faux-pas.

4 stars nonetheless ... -1 for inaccuracies in content and the cover image.