Customer Reviews

The Sinner

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One hot July day, twenty-four year old Cora Bender decides to commit suicide. Her plan is simple, go to the beach with her husband and two year old son, swim out deep, and drown. Her death would stop the nightmares and silence the horrible song that plays in her head. Most importantly, it would keep her from remembering snippets of the "black time" in her life. But she isn't able to kill herself. Before she has the chance to swim out into deep water, her son wants an apple. As she peels it for him, the couple on the blanket a few feet away begins making out. The wife slips a tape into the player and Cora hears the song. Something snaps inside her. She takes the small knife she's been using and stabs the man in the neck over and over again until she's dragged from his lifeless body.

It should be an open and shut case. There are several eye witnesses, and Cora readily admits to the murder, but all that isn't enough for Police Commissioner Rudolf Grovian. He wants to know why, and he won't stop until he breaks down the wall in Cora's mind that hides the black time.

THE SINNER is the story of Grovian's investigation into Cora's past. Originally written in German, THE SINNER is an exhaustingly fascinating examination of the lengths the human mind will go to in order to protect itself. I was riveted by this story. Cora's world in all its variations stayed with me even when my schedule dictated I put the book down. I found myself wondering what really happened, what was truth, and what was fiction in this darkly compelling psychological thriller. It is easy to see how this book stayed on Germany's bestseller list for fifteen months.

In the vast preponderance of crime stories, the detective must examine means and motive (the how and why) in order to identify the culprit (the who). This English-language debut from German writer Hammesfahr flips the traditional arrangement, by making the who and the how absolutely clear from the start, and making the why completely unknown. There is no dispute that Cora Bender attacked a man at the park with a paring knife and killed him in plain sight of her own husband, son, and plenty of witnesses. What no one, including Commissioner Grovian, can figure out is why. And to my surprise, Hammesfahr manages to make his quest to understand the "why" into a gripping tale.

Even as Cora confesses and offers explanation, Grovian senses that her story isn't quite right. And for 300 pages, he prods, pokes, and literally digs into her past to try and figure out what triggered her seemingly senseless murder. Cora is a psychological mess, and as she throws out lies, half-truths, and whole truths in sometimes coherent, sometimes manic, monologues and interviews, Grovian is constantly sifting away. Cora's childhood was a very strange one, raised by an intensely Catholic mother, sexually frustrated father, and both religious and sexual themes pervade the story. Her youth was also overshadowed by her invalid younger sister, whose illness drained most of the family's energy, money, and love. Grovian must peel away at this complex family history to learn what triggered Cora, and the climactic revelation pays it all off beautifully.

I don't tend to go for crime stories that are this intensely psychological, but this is a corker. It's perhaps a touch to long, and in places a touch too slow, but these are relatively minor quibbles considering the mesmerizing tale. The comparisons to Patricia Highsmith are valid, and hopefully some of Hammesfahr's twenty or so other books are equally good and will become available in English.

Police commissioner Rudolf Grovian decides to conduct an inquiry into the Cora Bender homicide case. In a park filled with people who witnessed Cora knife to the death n apparent stranger while her stunned husband Gereon tried to stop her after she slit the victim's throat. Although the local cops arrest Cora as the case is obvious with so many including her child and spouse seeing her do the act, Rudolf is fascinated by the culprit's behavior.

He interviews Cora trying to understand her motive for killing an apparent stranger. Instead Cora explains her family dynamics; not with Gereon who she loves and owes a debt of gratitude for allowing her to escape; instead with her blood family. Her mother hates her for being born and destroying her lifestyle with her birth; her disabled sister totally depended on Cora for everything. Still the cop struggles to comprehend why even as Cora explains her sexual obsession inside a religious fanaticism which bewilders him further.

This is a deep psychological crime thriller in which the audience learns the demons that haunt and obsess Cora. The story line rotates first and third person perspectives but that works quite nicely as the first person enables the reader to get inside Cora while the third person keeps the investigating exciting. Sub-genre readers will appreciate the character driven THE SINNER from the opening sequence when Cora almost kills Gereon with her powerful legs during a sexual moment until the final revelations that shake up Rudolf (and the audience).

Harriet Klausner

The Sinner was just a mass jumble of confusion for me. There's really no other way to put it. I tend to like mysteries as long as they're compelling and not predictable. The Sinner was compelling, so a check for that. And it wasn't predictable. However, I can't give that one a check considering that the only reason it wasn't predictable was because it was so hard to tell what the hell was going on.

The narration in this book was all over the place. You had numerous flashbacks told in Cora's first perspective. Then you had the present tense which is was told by Cora in the third person, followed by the chief also in the third person, and the aunt in the third person. It took like five minutes to figure out whether I was in the present or the past and to figure out who the hell was narrating which part. It was way too much work for something that's supposed to be entertaining.

The other problem I had with The Sinner was that it was a bloated book. The author seriously could've done with cutting out at least a hundred pages that had nothing to do with anything. For example, I really could care less about the chief's daughter and wife...or their insignificant opinions. His side plot was so boring and extremely unnecessary. It's all fine and dandy to hear his side of the story since he's the one trying to help Cora. But what the hell does his daughter or his wife have to do with anything? They don't. That and numerous other things had me bored for a while.

Did I want to know happened in Cora's past? Yes. I was intrigued. However, I went through a point where I just really wanted to finish the book and debated on whether or not I should just put myself out of this misery and just read the last page. Again, I didn't expect the twist to be what it was, but by the time I actually got there, I was so frustrated that I really could care less how twisted it was and was just happy that I would be able to put this book down.

So, I don't recommend The Sinner. I don't know if my reaction to this is due to the author or to the author's translator, but the fact remains that this book had an intriguing premise, but the payoff wasn't enough to slog through 300 pages of twisted games (and not in the good way), confusing narration, and boring side plots.

I'm going to offer a dissenting view from the other readers. I am a big fan of psychological thriller and an avid bookworm. This was one of the worst "thrillers," if you can call it that, that I've ever read. It's poorly written and plodding. I couldn't finish it.