A review by tfitoby
Detective Story by Tim Wilkinson, Imre Kertész

3.0

I think the synopsis oversells this interesting experiment in perspective, sure we’re riding in the mind of a member of some fascist police group or other from some South American banana republic but i’m not entirely sure Kertesz is asking us to sympathise with the guy or anything so confronting. If anything it’s far more subtle yet completely in keeping with many of the stories that came out of Germany after WWII or perhaps come from any lunatic cop in America in 2018 - I was just riding the wave to get ahead, doing as I was told only before I knew it things were so far out of my control etc. - than the hyperbole of a selling tool such as a synopsis can allow for. And even then i’m not sure it did a good enough job based on the condition of the ten year old library book I read - it literally looked and felt like it had never been opened. And whilst I enjoyed what little there was of this novella it really didn’t offer me, as a seasoned literary noir reader, much to ponder, digest, cling to, beyond the basic narrative confession from somebody unreliable, a confession lacking depth, that explores little beyond softly asking the reader to confront their own prejudices and preconceived notions.