The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge

May 17, 2010
A mass suicide (or "Departure") of a secret cult's adherents discovered in a French forest on New Year's Day, laid out in a fan shape in the snow, at the start of this haunting novel from British author Duncker (Hallucinating Foucault), resembles a larger Departure years earlier, in Switzerland. Looking into both cases are Dominique Carpentiera, a "judge," or investigator, in the French court system, and André Schweigen, a commissaire, or police officer with judicial powers. Complicating matters is the nearly obsessive love that Andre holds for the beautiful and idiosyncratic Dominique. Delving into the history of the cult, Dominique travels extensively, including back to her own roots among the vineyards of France. Along the way she comes to realize that at the center of her search is an ancient book full of strange code and a brilliant German composer named Friedrich Grosz. Though the leisurely plot gets progressively flakier and the personal dynamics a bit tiresome, the prose remains vibrant.