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In Matto's Realm: A Sergeant Studer Mystery

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In the late 1920s in Bern, Dr. Ernst Laduner specifically asks to see Detective Sergeant Jakob Studer as they met in Vienna though the cop does not remember the psychiatrist. Laduner informs Studer that a patient Peter Pieterlen, a child murderer, escaped from the Randlingen Psychiatric Clinic; Studer concludes the psychiatrist is performing a classic CYA especially since another patient director Ulrich Borstli vanished.

Studer questions those on duty when Borstli allegedly disappeared and Pieterlen escaped from the asylum. As he continues his investigation in the boiler room, he discovers the murdered corpse of Borstli, whose neck is broken. While his superior and the psychiatrist claim that the murdering maniac Pieterlen killed Borstli before fleeing the crime scene, Studer thinks otherwise. The psychological theories brought forth to accuse the missing patient as the killer makes him wonder if someone is hiding the homicide behind psychological theory that sounds more like mumbo jumbo.

IN MATTO'S REALM is a dark period piece police procedural that grips the audience from the moment Studer enters the clinic and never lets go as the sleuth realizes those inside reflect those outside. The strong story line is cast-driven as the audience obtains a deep look at a 1920s German mental asylum accompanied by the prevalent psychological theories of the day. The who-done-it is shrewdly developed so that readers receive a fine detective story used to provide a look at a psychiatric clinic by an insider as author Friedrich Glauser spent time in psychiatric wards where he began his writing career.

Harriet Klausner

Like Fever and Thumbprint, the conclusion of this book was sort of unconventional for a detective story but somehow this one was more satisfying. Wonderfully consistent and concise tone of storytelling.

Friedrich Glauser is a real find. Despite poor health, addiction, poverty and years spent in a psychiatric hospital and a prison Glauser found the optimism and willpower to write what he saw and knew and tell an excellent tale. From the details of lighting inside a psychiatric ward c. 1936 (the bulbs were shaded with blue paper at night,) to his understanding of the experimentation being done with Veronal, to keen observations on the lemming-like behavior of Hitler's followers and the parallels to be found among the mentally ill, this book is a great read. It flows, the characters are enigmatic and compelling, the plotting suspenseful and deft. I am so glad this was finally translated into English! Thanks to Mike Mitchell for that.