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the complete review - fiction

Wie die Tiere

by
Wolf Haas

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : good fun

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Wie stets bei Wolf Haas spielt der Plot eine untergeordnete Rolle. Er bleibt gerade spannend genug, dass man weiterliest, doch verliert er (nicht zum ersten Mal) im Lauf des Buches zusehends an Plausibilität. Das schadet indes wenig, da die bitterböse Milieuzeichnung den Text von Szene zu Szene trägt, und letztlich geht es ohnehin um dessen Mikrostruktur: um den unverwechselbaren Ton, mit dem der unsichtbare Erzähler den Leser ins Labyrinth seiner bruchstückhaften Gedanken zieht." - Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  
  
• "Da sage noch einer, man könne in Krimis keine zeithistorischen oder sozialpsychologische Metaphern unterbringen." - Uwe Wittstock, Die Welt

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Like all the Brenner novels except the first, Wie die Tiere ('Like the Animals') begins : "Jetzt ist schon wieder was passiert" ('Well, something's happened again') -- and private detective Simon Brenner soon finds he has landed in the middle of it. The setting is again Vienna, to which Brenner has returned because he's thinking of early retirement and the bureaucratic process is easier if he's residing in the capital. That's why he takes this particular case -- and insists that the job comes with room and board.
       The case seems about as unspectacular as it can get: someone has been killing dogs by leaving dog-treats with needles stuck in them. The Viennese are notoriously dog-obsessed, and so this is actually a crime that has been getting a lot of publicity; with Brenner's luck he eventually finds himself on the cover of the nation's leading tabloid, the headline announcing that he's the notorious doggie-treat-killer .....
       As in Komm, süßer Tod , an inheritance-scam or scheme also crops up, as dog-lovers have been leaving their estates to their pets. The management of pet-trusts is the trend of the future one person in the business tells Brenner, and it's clear that there is a lot of possibility for abuse here. And that other heirs who have gotten the short end of the stick might have an interest in getting rid of the pooches keeping them from their inheritance .....
       Wie die Tiere has a more prominent authorial presence, the omniscient "I" more opinionated than usual, but the book fairly quickly settles down into the usual routine of roundabout crime-solving, with the occasional deadly disaster along the way. It's the off-hand narration that makes all the books in the series, and this is no exception, Haas more or less on his game again and this an amusing ride.
       All in all: the usual good fun.

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Links:

• Rowohlt publicity page

• Iris Kammerer (German)
• Leselust (German)
• literaturhaus.at (German)
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German)
• Die Welt (German)
• X-zine (German)
• Die Zeit (German)

• Interview at transforum
• Wolf Haas’s Simon Brenner Novels: Austrian Adaptations and Transformations of the American Detective Story by Helga Schreckenberger at Trans
• Wolf Haas at About Vienna

• The Brenner-series
  1. Auferstehung der Toten
  2. Der Knochenmann
  3. Komm, süßer Tod
  4. Silentium !
  5. Wie die Tiere
  6. Das ewige Leben
• The Weather Fifteen Years Ago

• See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
• See Index of German literature
• See Index of Series and Sequels under review

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About the Author:

       Austrian author Wolf Haas was born in 1960, and is best known for his series of Brenner-mysteries.

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