A Philosophical Investigation

1992

The year is 2013. The place is London. The death penalty has been replaced by the more economical alternative 'punitive coma,' a popular musical of the day is called 'The Yorkshire Ripper,' and serial killings have reached epidemic proportions. The government has found that the best detectives are women. Of them, none is better than Inspector Isadora 'Jake' Jacowicz, an iron-willed beauty with cadmium-green eyes. Serial killers know her skill. Fellow officers fear her contempt. Men cringe before her wrath. And only her therapist suspects the demons that drive her.

But now she must stop a killer code-named 'Wittgenstein,' whose intellectual brilliance matches his homicidal madness, and who trumps her with fresh corpses again and again in a macabre mind game. In a future world of 'reality approximation,' DNA detection, and social disintegration, the ultimate investigator and a chillingly rational murderer enter into a diabolical cat-and-mouse game.

Critical Praise

"Set in an early 21st century London of Orwellian squalor, this is a crime novel with a twist... An unusual and intellectually stimulating thriller." ~ Library Journal

"One of the more imaginative thrillers in quite a while... Combines teleological speculations with nitty-gritty futuristic police work." ~ The Wall Street Journal

"The brainiest thriller to come along in years... raising questions about knowledge, proof, and reality in unnervingly dramatic contexts." ~ Kirkus Reviews

"A stunning novel... convincing... frightening... Philip Kerr puts and end to the myth that all the best crime fiction is written by women." ~ Ruth Rendell

"A truly intellectual thriller that makes the brain cells as well as the hair on the back of the neck tingle." ~ GQ

"Chilling... absorbing.... part techno-thriller, part futuristic detective story, part diary of a serial killer." ~ The New York Times

"Terrific... A nifty novel, to describe, and dream about." ~ National Public Radio

"Best described as a suspense writer's suspense novel -- an impressive tour de force that is likely to be regarded as a classic among the cognoscenti." ~ The Wichita Eagle