Death of a Foreign Gentleman
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher, is cycling through an intersection when a speeding car strikes and kills him. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born Jew, stands over the body of Friedrich, contemplating the age-old question – who did it? Friedrich might be one of the finest minds of his age, but he’s problematic: arrogant and a womaniser, he was also, a member of the Nazi Party. As Stephen is soon to discover, there is no shortage of suspects. Friedrich was hated by almost everybody. Is there any sense to his death or was it just a case of random luck? Or are there more sinister factors at work?
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
The book is a leisurely and elegant crime novel set in Cambridge, England just after the Second World war. The author is unhurried with his prose, and similarly, the detective investigating the crime also appears calm and unhurried. Rural England life as you might imagine it then, with lots of interesting characters thrown in.