Philip Kerr: A Philosophical Investigation (1992)

Edition: Vintage, 1996
Review number: 1252

Having already read a couple of Philip Kerr's thrillers that seem to be heavily influenced by Michael Crichton, I was not expecting A Philosophical Investigation to be the kind of novel that it is. It is in the crime rather than thriller genre, even if it picks the crime theme most conducive to a thriller style, the serial killer. With a serial killer, the traditional methods of detective fiction, relating means, motive and opportunity to the people surrounding the victim, are either hard to apply or hardly relevant. Even so, Kerr's novel lies between the two genres, but is closer to the core of the crime genre than the thriller. Among its deviations from the standard practises of either genre is the background - it takes place in a stylised, science fictional alternate reality that reminds me of Jasper Fforde's England of The Eyre Affair - but stripped of its silly touches.

The plot of A Philosophical Investigation is hard to describe without giving away some of the fun details that make the novel different, and which is so much better as a reader to discover for oneself. The changes made to create the alternative world are cleverly woven into the investigation; and the alert reader will pick up all kinds of literary and philosophical references and other touches - this may strike some as tedious and too clever by half, but I find it fascinating. (A familiarity with some basic ideas of Western philosophy gives a reader a big advantage - something on the level of Sophie's World should be read before this novel.) It is a rare crime novel that makes me feel inspired to read Wittgenstein - and the enjoyment is not just intellectual, as A Philosophical Investigation is full of jokes, too.

Philip Kerr: Esau (1996)

Edition: Vintage, 1997
Review number: 1146

A Himalayan climbing accident leads Jack Furness to discover a humanoid skull in a mountain cave - the first uncontestable evidence for the existence of the Yeti. When he returns to the States, he gives it to a friend and occasional lover who also happens to be a researcher into human evolution. This is Swift's big chance for academic fame, so she begins investigating the skull and putting together a grant application for an expedition to the Himalayas. Partly because of the secrecy with which she needs to surround her work with to prevent her breakthrough being stolen, and partly because of tension between India and Pakistan making Nepal an unsafe place to visit, her application is initially turned down. But the tension also makes the CIA keen to introduce an agent into the area, and so, without Swift's knowledge, pressure is brought for the decision to be reverse and for an agent (who is also a scientist in a relevant field - a useful coincidence for the benefit of the plot) is told to apply to be part of the team.

The yeti hunt side of the novel - which provides the title, the Yeti being equated with Esau in the Biblical story - is quite well done, and is reminiscent of stories like The Lost World or the film Jurassic Park. (One of the quotes on the back compares Kerr to Michael Crichton, writer of the story which became that film, but Kerr is a much more satisfying writer - there is more to him than a series of moderately interesting ideas.) Such a hunt in the Himalayas has in itself enough potential danger and interest to make a worthwhile subject for a thriller without the political element introduced here, and the activities of the CIA agent seem to me to detract from Esau as a whole. In fact, the whole of the second half of the novel is a disappointment, after the build up to and the early part of the expedition. If Esau had continued to live up to the promise of its first half, it would have been an excellent thriller, but the implausible politics make it unsatisfying.

Philip Kerr: Dead Meat (1992)

Edition: Chatto & Windus, 1993
Review number: 1093

The aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the hardships faced in Russia since seem to have fallen out of the news in recent years. This is probably both because the situation has been gradually improving and because it lacks the novelty value that makes it news in Western Europe. The time following the coup attempt in 1992 was one of great hardship throughout the former USSR, and saw the development of violent organised crime, known generically as the Russian Mafia. (In fact, of course, and as reflected in this novel, there is a lot of rivalry between different gangs, many of which have a racially based organisation, so that the Chechens and Georgians are constantly fighting, for example.) Even if everyday living is easier now, the organised crime syndicates have not gone away. In the realms of fiction, the Russian Mafia seem to be a popular subject for thrillers already. (Proof of this is that it's been used as a scenario for a James Bond film, as well as related events providing the basis for Frederick Forsyth's Icon.)

Philip Kerr's thriller is more realistic than either of these. It is about anti-Mafia units in the police force, the main character being a Moscow policeman ostensibly on a fact finding mission to study the methods used by the St Petersburg equivalent. He is actually meant to be checking that the leader of this unit, named Grushko, is as clean of corruption as he seems, as this is very unlikely in Russia in the early nineties (when inflation and shortages meant that the legitimate income of a policeman didn't go far at all). While the narrator, the Moscow cop, is in St Petersburg, a prominent anti-Mafia journalist (who likes to describe himself as Russia's first investigative journalist) is murdered, and so any consideration about bribery is taken over by the investigation into this crime.

Kerr's novel is based on considerable research, including the co-operative help of the real equivalents of Grushko. He also brings in many of the images associated with Russia in the last decade, such as an unsafe nuclear power industry, crumbling infrastructure, corruption and food queues. The setting is really well done, and makes the novel a bit different, both from the unrealistic stories I've already mentioned and from more conventional crime thrillers which have a similar style (such as Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels). Dead Meat is an engrossing thriller, if bleak, well worth reading and encouraging me to find more Philip Kerr.