Fever

Glauser's Sergeant Studer books are unusual in their strange imagery and bursts of dreamlike confusion and I became lost in Fever, the last book in the series. There's a confusion of identities, with many of the characters having similar names and pseudonyms. Even Studer uses a false identity. There's a mysterious corporal who can predict the future, an elderly barefoot priest, a missing stockbroker, a geologist who may or may not be dead, and might have been a murderer, and a young woman whose cryptic communications and sudden unexpected appearances create even more confusion. The corporal, who is probably someone else altogether, is in the French Foreign Legion, so Studer's unofficial investigation takes him to Morocco.

The book was show more first published in 1935, and the undercurrents of political corruption, mistrust, and the fear of the coming war add to the nightmarish atmosphere. As a crime novel Fever is deeply flawed, but as a record of the times it's worth reading. show less

In 1930s Switzerland Sergeant Jakob Studer of the Bern Cantonal Police may have finally stumbled on the “Big Case.” One involving the murders – disguised as suicide by gas – of two women. It also involves a deed to oil-rich land in Africa, people changing their identities, a mysterious priest, and “lots of brothers and sisters.”

Studer travels to North Africa under an assumed identity to track down the possible murderer and solve the “Big Case,” if it is that. Along the way he travels by donkey and tries hashish and eventually gets his answers.

"Friedrich Glauser was born in Vienna in 1896. Often referred to as the Swiss Simenon, he died aged forty-two a few days before he was due to be married. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, addicted to morphine..." [Bitter Lemon Press]

Initially Sergeant Studer is visiting friends in Paris in the Sûreté. As he is about to return to Bern, he hears a story of a clairvoyant who predicts the death of two sisters in Basel and Bern. Sure enough he no sooner arrives in Basel to find a woman succumbed to gas. When he arrives at his department in Bern, another such death occurs. Although the police might be content with a suicide verdict, Studer has other ideas and his search for a murderer leads him to the Foreign Legion in Morocco into stories of show more German Spies and oil riches. A good tale with some humor. It was somewhat difficult keeping track of several character by the name of Koller and a priest who was not. show less

Early crime in german language, well drawn characters and easy structure.