Die Anstalt
von John Katzenbach
It’s been twenty years since Western State Hospital was closed down and the last of its inmates reintegrated into society. Francis Petrel was barely out of his teens when his family committed him to the asylum, after his erratic behavior culminated in a terrifying outburst. Now middle-aged, he leads an aimless, solitary life housed in a cheap apartment, periodically tended to by his sisters, and perpetually medicated to quiet the chorus of voices in his head. But a reunion on the grounds of the shuttered institution stirs something deep in Francis’s troubled dark memories he thought he had laid to rest, about the grisly events that led to Western State Hospital’s demise.It begins in 1979, when twenty-one-year-old Petrel descends into the state-run purgatory of an overcrowded, understaffed Massachusetts mental hospital. Surrounded by inmates roaming the halls like drugged zombies and raving behind locked doors, well-meaning orderlies, jaded nurses, and patronizing doctors, Francis finds friendship with a motley assortment of fellow a would-be Napoleon, a wise ex-firefighter, and a man obsessed with battling imagined devils. But there’s nothing imaginary about the young nurse found sexually assaulted and brutally murdered late one night after lights-out.The police suspect an inmate, while patients whisper about visions of a white-shrouded “angel.” But the striking and mysterious prosecuting attorney who arrives to investigate has her own chilling theory—about the grim, telltale “signature” left on the victim’s body, a string of unsolved sex killings, and a very real devil who, by chance or design, has come to turn a madhouse into a slaughterhouse.Now, with the past creeping back to haunt his thoughts, and nothing but a pencil and the bare walls of his bleak apartment, Francis surrenders to the overwhelming need to tell the story of those nightmarish days. But because the crime was never solved, it’s a story doomed to remain unfinished. Until, like Francis’s long-buried recollections, the killer resurfaces . . . with a vengeance.A tour de force narrative journey through the eerily unpredictable mind of an utterly unusual hero, The Madman’s Tale will keep even the most astute thriller reader uncertain, unnerved, and unable to resist the tantalizing twists and turns of this fiendishly suspenseful shadow show.From the Hardcover edition.
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Die Anstalt
von John Katzenbach
It’s been twenty years since Western State Hospital was closed down and the last of its inmates reintegrated into society. Francis Petrel was barely out of his teens when his family committed him to the asylum, after his erratic behavior culminated in a terrifying outburst. Now middle-aged, he leads an aimless, solitary life housed in a cheap apartment, periodically tended to by his sisters, and perpetually medicated to quiet the chorus of voices in his head. But a reunion on the grounds of the shuttered institution stirs something deep in Francis’s troubled dark memories he thought he had laid to rest, about the grisly events that led to Western State Hospital’s demise.It begins in 1979, when twenty-one-year-old Petrel descends into the state-run purgatory of an overcrowded, understaffed Massachusetts mental hospital. Surrounded by inmates roaming the halls like drugged zombies and raving behind locked doors, well-meaning orderlies, jaded nurses, and patronizing doctors, Francis finds friendship with a motley assortment of fellow a would-be Napoleon, a wise ex-firefighter, and a man obsessed with battling imagined devils. But there’s nothing imaginary about the young nurse found sexually assaulted and brutally murdered late one night after lights-out.The police suspect an inmate, while patients whisper about visions of a white-shrouded “angel.” But the striking and mysterious prosecuting attorney who arrives to investigate has her own chilling theory—about the grim, telltale “signature” left on the victim’s body, a string of unsolved sex killings, and a very real devil who, by chance or design, has come to turn a madhouse into a slaughterhouse.Now, with the past creeping back to haunt his thoughts, and nothing but a pencil and the bare walls of his bleak apartment, Francis surrenders to the overwhelming need to tell the story of those nightmarish days. But because the crime was never solved, it’s a story doomed to remain unfinished. Until, like Francis’s long-buried recollections, the killer resurfaces . . . with a vengeance.A tour de force narrative journey through the eerily unpredictable mind of an utterly unusual hero, The Madman’s Tale will keep even the most astute thriller reader uncertain, unnerved, and unable to resist the tantalizing twists and turns of this fiendishly suspenseful shadow show.From the Hardcover edition.
Aktuelle Rezensionen(2)
Rezension von booklover.demianDurchschnittlich, aber viel zu viele Längen
Rezension von Daniela 📓Es ist etwas schwierig, das Buch zu beurteilen, es kommt immer ein wenig darauf an, was man sich laut Klappentext und Werbung erhofft hat. Und erhofft habe ich mir einen spannungsgeladenen Thriller, so wie es auf der Rückseite des Buches angegeben wurde [angeblich würde man den Roman nicht mehr aus der Hand legen können]. Gelesen habe ich ein sehr langatmiges Buch, das auf den ersten Seiten etwas Spannung erzeugt, dann extrem abfällt - und zwar 500 Seiten lang - und zum Schluss wieder anhebt. Zwischenzeitlich erzeugte Spannung verpufft leider. Auch sind mir einige Dinge in dem Buch etwas suspekt. So kann ich mir zum Beispiel nicht vorstellen, dass zwei Menschen, die wegen massiven psychischen Problemen in einer Anstalt als Patient verweilen, als Helfer an der Seite einer Staatsanwältin agieren und dies von dem Psychologen und Psychiatern auch gebilligt wird. Irgendwie ist in diesem Buch vieles sehr weit hergeholt. Als Thriller würde ich diesen Roman nicht durchgehen lassen. Keine Frage, es ist ein gutes Buch, weil Katzenbach es einfach meisterhaft versteht, Menschen zu skizzieren. Das war es dann aber auch schon. Ein guter Krimi, kein Thriller.