Suspicion [1952/2017] – ★★★★

“Suspicion is a terrible thing, it comes from the devil. There’s nothing like suspicion to bring out the worst in people” Dürrenmatt/Agee [1952/2017].

Inspector Barlach is terminally ill, staying at a hospital in Switzerland where one day his friend points out to him that one photo in a medical journal resembles a man he used to know – Dr. Emmenberger. However, the photo caption says that this is known Nazi doctor Nehle, responsible for countless deaths. So, how is it possible for two people to be so similar in their appearance? The Nazi doctor (Dr. Nehle) supposedly poisoned himself in 1945, and the man known to Barlach’s friend now runs a successful clinic whose patients leave him property after their death. That’s suspicious. What if the identities were switched? Could it be that this ex-Nazi never actually killed himself and is now possibly killing off his patients for their property? Barlach reckons that the only way to find out for sure is to become Emmenberger’s patient, but that soon proves risky. In no time Barlach is drawn into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game and at stake is possibly his own life (or what is left of it). Can he expose the man for what he is before that man gets the chance to silence him forever? Dürrenmatt is at the top of his form in this novel: succinct, philosophical, and endlessly thought-provoking.

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