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The Strange Case Of The Composer And His Judge by Patricia Duncker

Sixteen dead bodies are discovered on New Year’s Day in freshly fallen snow. The adults lie stiff in a semicircle, the children in pyjamas and overcoats are curled at their feet. When word spreads, Commissaire Schweigen knows who to call: Dominique Carpentier, The Judge, also known as the ‘sect hunter’. She prides herself on her ability to expose frauds and charlatans but may have met her match in this case.

This is not the first time that the Commissaire had worked with Madame le Juge nor is it the first time they have encountered this strange suicide sect.

Readers might note the similarities between some of characteristics of the sects mentioned in this book and those of some of the more notable cults of today give this novel a frightening touch of realism. The sect responsible for the deaths of those found in the forest on New Year’s Day though (and for some deaths in Switzerland a few years earlier) is different. It doesn’t seek out lost souls and cut them off from the outside world or offer public lectures and openly recruit. Its members are successful, seemingly with everything to live for. What possible motive could they have for committing suicide? It is also hard for The Judge and Schweigen to locate the truth behind such a secret sect, when even friends and family of the victims don’t know about it.

One of the few things the pair have to go on is the appearance of a famous composer named Friedrich Grosz at the funeral of one of the first victims and a reference to someone with the same initials in a book among the possessions of the woman who was shot in the second. Could the composer be behind the sect? Carpentier and Schweigen are slowly drawn into a world of complex family ties, ancient beliefs and seductive, disturbing music.

There is more to this novel than a mystery of a sect as there is real chemistry between Schweigen and The Judge, it was this chemistry that was behind Schweigen calling her when he first heard of the deaths on New Year’s Day. Will his infatuation hinder the case or put them both in danger?

RRP $35.00
Published and distributed by Allen and Unwin under the Bloomsbury title
 

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