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Sonia Frey fears for her sanity. Her marriage ended in divorce after her husband tried to kill her, and an acid trip has disordered her senses-she can now "feel" smells and "see" sounds. To escape her immediate situation she has moved to a remote Alpine village, where a series of unusual events throws her into further turmoil. The mystery deepens as she discovers a parallel to these occurrences in local folkloric tales of the supernatural. Could the legend of the Devil of Milan really be true? Or is the truth more sinister? Sonia's mind, already under pressure from her strange sensory awareness, is stretched to the breaking point by the climate of paranoia developing around her. Tightly plotted and intelligently written, this engrossing mystery's gripping ending will leave readers pondering the shifting nature of truth and identity.… (more)
Despite an intriguing start, with stoned person in search of toilet, not much happened in the first half of this book, unless you count the attempted assassination of an ornamental fig. I didn’t mind too much as I was enjoying the setting – high up in the Swiss mountains, land of cowbells and yodelling. It reminded me of a recent holiday there and was all very pleasant . The story picked up in the second half for sure, and aside from some leaden prose (could be the translation) it was pretty reasonable all round. The sort of thing I could imagine Agatha Christie writing, if she were at work in the 21st century.
This is the second book I have read featuring a character with synaesthesia (the other being Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrall). Both allowed this element of the story to fade into the background and I wonder if it’s just that such a condition is interesting on the face of it but hard to represent in print. ( )
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Jenseits der Erscheinungsbildes der Außenwelt, welches unsere Wirklichkeit darstellt, verbirgt sich eine transzendentale Wirklichkeit, deren wahres Wesen ein Geheimnis bleibt. (Dr. Albert Hofmann)
Dedication
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Für Albert und Anita Hofmann
First words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Es roch nicht mehr schieferblau, und auch die Stimmen konnte sie nicht mehr sehen.
Quotations
Last words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Aber die Birke an ihrem Fenster verdunkelte das Zimmer nicht mehr.
Sonia Frey fears for her sanity. Her marriage ended in divorce after her husband tried to kill her, and an acid trip has disordered her senses-she can now "feel" smells and "see" sounds. To escape her immediate situation she has moved to a remote Alpine village, where a series of unusual events throws her into further turmoil. The mystery deepens as she discovers a parallel to these occurrences in local folkloric tales of the supernatural. Could the legend of the Devil of Milan really be true? Or is the truth more sinister? Sonia's mind, already under pressure from her strange sensory awareness, is stretched to the breaking point by the climate of paranoia developing around her. Tightly plotted and intelligently written, this engrossing mystery's gripping ending will leave readers pondering the shifting nature of truth and identity.
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Book description
Sonia Frey fears for her sanity. Her marriage ended in divorce after her husband tried to kill her. Added to this, an acid trip has disordered her senses — she can now "feel" smells, "see" sounds.
To escape these worries, she takes a job as a physiotherapist at a newly re-opened hotel in a remote Alpine village in the Swiss Engadine. However, a series of unusual events throws her into disarray once more. The mystery deepens as she discovers a parallel to these occurrences in local folkloric tales of the supernatural. Can the legend of the Devil of Milan really be true? Or is the truth more sinister? Sonia's mind, already under pressure from her strange sensory awareness, is stretched to breaking point by the climate of paranoia developing around her.
This tightly plotted, intelligently written novel is an acute study of the shifting nature of identity and reality, as well as an engrossing mystery story with a thrilling denouement.
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This is the second book I have read featuring a character with synaesthesia (the other being Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrall). Both allowed this element of the story to fade into the background and I wonder if it’s just that such a condition is interesting on the face of it but hard to represent in print. (