The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach

first published in German 2011

this version, translated by Anthea Bell, published 2012

[A young lawyer, Leinen, is visiting a much more senior member of his own profession]

The room was dark, not much larger than Leinen’s own office, with a simple desk, a wooden chair with arms at the desk, no visitors’ chairs, a yellow lamp, a black phone with a circular dial. The walls were panelled in mahogany, bookshelves were built into the side walls, and there were broad wooden venetian blinds over both windows. It looked like an office from the 1920s. A large cigar box stood on the desk, black wood with pale intarsia work. Mattinger had his feet up on the desk and was dozing; his tie had slipped, saliva trickled from the right-hand corner of his mouth. A few red files lay in front of him; Leinen could see from the names on them that they were being dealt with by other lawyers in the chambers. Mattinger woke with a jolt…

‘I like your room.’

‘I bought it 30 years ago from a building on the Kurfurstendamm that was being renovated, had it installed here. It’s said to have belonged to a famous notary.’

‘It’s wonderful.’

‘Maybe a little too dark,’ said Mattinger. ‘But I’m used to that now.'

observations: There’s been a lot of talk about this book on the crime fiction blogs, and I’ve come late to it: but  I was given it as a present by a dear friend (thank you Jo) and have now read it.

It is a most unusual book: von Schirach is a German lawyer who has turned to writing, and has been very successful. But this particular story has, you would guess, been constructed with one purpose only, which is to point out a strange anomaly in German law. It is a good story and very compelling: he has done his job well, and the book is short (under 200 pages), sharp and powerful. An Italian man, Fabrizio Collini, makes an appointment to see a prominent German industrialist, Hans Meyer, in a hotel in Berlin. He turns up, and shoots Meyer. Then he waits in the hotel lobby for the police to arrive. He makes no attempt to escape, or to resist arrest, or to deny the charge. But he will not explain – at this time – why he killed Meyer. The young lawyer Leinin is appointed as his representative. Leinin finds out that the victim is someone he knew as a child. After consulting with Mattinger, above, he decides to continue with the case despite this. He investigates, and eventually finds out the truth about the two men. You can probably guess some of the threads that might be behind this, but the points of law involved are extremely well-presented, and you probably wouldn’t guess exactly what is the problem that von Schirach has exposed in the system.

There is a lot more to say about the issues, and von Schirach’s own family history is relevant. This is a case where AFTER reading the book most people will want to read more comment, discussion and facts about it - so here are some helpful links.

Many of my blogging friends  have reviewed the book: I would particularly recommend two pieces by Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More. Bill is a lawyer in Canada, and his considerable knowledge and experience add a lot to his blogpost – he helpfully did one post WITHOUT SPOILERS and one WITH SPOILERS. Bernadette Inoz looks closely at some of the issues and controversial aspects of the book in this blogpost: the comments below this piece are also well worth reading for some further viewpoints. I can also recommend reviews by Margot Kinberg at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist blog, and TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery.

The top picture from the Library of Congress shows a lawyer in Texas. The bottom picture, same source, was one I used for this blog entry on Robert Galbraith’s book The Silkworm.