5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Philosopical Mystery with a French Flavor, July 25, 2010
This review is from: The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge: A Novel (Paperback)
The philosophical discourse at the heart of "The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge" by Patricia Duncker is wrapped in just enough mystery to keep the reader pursuing the answers to the puzzling mass suicides committed by followers of an ecumenical religious order known as the Faith.
The story opens with the discovery of 16 bodies, adults and children, found by hunters in a field in France, the adults arranged in a semi-circle facing the east with the children at their feet. All but one has died by poisoning; the remaining one, Marie-Cécile Laval, has been shot, but no gun is found at the scene. This second mass "departure," as it is known in the Faith, is much smaller than the one that occurred in Switzerland six years earlier in which sixty-nine teenagers and adults "had either killed themselves, or been assisted on their passage into eternity . . . ." In that departure Marie-Cécile Laval's brother had been the one found shot and, likewise, no gun was found. Because many of the dead at the Swiss site were French, André Schweigen of the French police was consulted. He in turn consulted with a specialized investigator, Judge Dominique Carpentier, known as "the sect hunter," whose mission is to ferret out pseudo-religious sects and determine what charges, if any, can be brought against them. But the Swiss were not anxious to pursue the case and so the French team made no progress. Now, six years later with a new crime on French soil, the Judge can pursue her investigation against the Faith with renewed vigor. Together with Schweigen and her assistant, Gaëlle, they discover a coded guidebook to the Faith, as well as its most prominent member, the world-renown German Composer, Friedrich Grosz, who is the godfather of Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Marie-Cécile Laval, a friend from the Judge's youth. The Judge is determined to discover how all of these people and clues fit together, but there is another complication, one the Judge is not as prepared to handle: both Schweigen and the Composer are hopelessly and unashamedly in love with the Judge. And so, what begins as a murder investigation enlarges to include an examination of religious sects and the limits of religious freedom, the emotional appeal of opera and--because the Faith is based on the movement of certain stars--the central role of astronomy in many religions. Much like a musical composition, the story starts slowly then builds to a tension-filled crescendo with a fitting and just finale.
Ultimately,"The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge" is primarily a literary work with the mystery serving more as a transparent framework for the philosophical dialogue that infuses the story. Mystery readers who read widely in other genres will find this an interesting read, as well as readers who enjoyed works like "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox" and "Olive Kitteridge."
(This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher through an early reviewer program.)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Literary Fiction, Not Mystery, July 26, 2010
This review is from: The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge: A Novel (Paperback)
At first I didn't think my IQ was high enough to read this book. I really struggled with understanding the writing for the first few chapters. Eventually I either got used to the writing or it dumbed down a little, because I was able to read and understand it easily enough.
All that being said, this book is definitely more then a simple `whodunit' mystery. Actually as I got closer and closer to the final pages it seemed more of diatribe on philosophical matters then solving the dead bodies that littered the beginning pages.
Reaching the final page left me confused. I wasn't confused about the murder case. I was confused on whether I liked the book or not. Actually I am still asking myself that question. Before I answer that question, I have to ask `what kind of book do you want to read?' I think it works great as a piece of literary fiction. However if you are looking for a mystery book, which I was, it is missing some of the excitement and suspense of the genre.
BookSake Reviewer: Wally
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a real mystery at all, January 22, 2011
This review is from: The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge: A Novel (Paperback)
I came to this site after reading the book which advertised itself as a mystery. The mystery is why I slogged through the whole thing and at the end there was no reward. The Judge is a pretty woman with sensuous eyes who prefers details and analysis to any kind of real life. Two men, who are similar in character, are besotted by her in the way of a florid romance novel and I for one found it rather irritating. Also irritating was that after following the winding path of the language I got nowhere other than a number of people killing themselves over their own private beliefs. The Judge is finally allegedly in love, though no real reason is given for this very logical woman to lose her heart. Then the story ends. If I had known this was the kind of book I read at University for European Lit. I would have been okay but I like mysteries. The only mystery here was the ending of the book.
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