The Pledge

One of the Sunday Times 100 Best Crime Novels and Thrillers Since 1945The rule-breaking mastermind of crime'As terse and assured in construction as the best of Simenon'Spectator'Spellbinding'Washington PostWhen a young girl is found brutally murdered in a Swiss mountain forest, the brilliant Inspector Matthai can't put the case behind him. Not even when a local felon is arrested. Not even once the suspect has confessed.Matthai promises the girl's mother that he will stop at nothing to find the real killer.Adapted into a Hollywood film, The Pledge is the chilling story of a man in desperate search of the truth. A man driven to sacrifice everything, to commit acts of cruelty and obsession in a desperate search for a killer he can't find.'Unusual and arresting... Dürrenmatt is an accomplished and dramatic storyteller, and he has tucked into his short narrative some tantalizing moral questions'Atlantic Monthly'This spare yet potent book which conjures the most striking magic, entrancing with its chills, shocks, artful delights, and even surprise lyrical wonders'The National