- Paperback: 282 pages
- Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press; FICTC edition (2 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904738389
- ISBN-13: 978-1904738381
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,091,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Public Prosecutor
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Product Description
Review
A"In contrast with Mankell, the warm-hearted psychologist of the individual, we find Geeraerts, a cold-blooded surgeon who lays bare the ills of a society. This thriller, so loyal to the genre that the irony and parody are barely perceptible, is relentless. The machinations of Opus Dei and dubious financial manoeuvres are deftly juxtaposed with descriptions of fine restaurants and nids d'amour.A" Tagesspiegel BerlinA"One of Geeraerts literary achievements is that such a shameless and baroque character as Savelkoul ends up attracting your sympathy as you read on. A revealing study of a very dark society.A" Facts Zurich A"Geeraerts exposes the mechanics of corruption, the abuse of power, political cynicism and the excesses triggered by religious delusion. His novels are often at the centre of political scandal.A" ZDF
Product Description
Albert Savelkoul, the Public Prosecutor of Antwerp, has everything: power, money, magnificent horses, a family and a high-maintenance mistress. Despite problems with the mistress and his prostate he's convinced that he is invincible, his power untouchable. However, Albert's wife has set her sights on a title for her son. Opus Dei promises to help her if she transfers all her wealth to the secretive organisation - and they stop at nothing in hounding Albert. A tale of blackmail and murder follows, leavened by Albert's interludes with his loving Polish maid.
''In contrast with Mankell, the warm-hearted psychologist of the individual, we find Geeraerts, a cold-blooded surgeon who lays bare the ills of a society. This thriller, so loyal to the genre that the irony and parody are barely perceptible, is relentless. The machinations of Opus Dei and dubious financial manoeuvres are deftly juxtaposed with descriptions of fine restaurants and nids d'amour.'' Tagesspiegel Berlin
''One of Geeraerts literary achievements is that such a shameless and baroque character as Savelkoul ends up attracting your sympathy as you read on. A revealing study of a very dark society.'' Facts Zurich
''Geeraerts exposes the mechanics of corruption, the abuse of power, political cynicism and the excesses triggered by religious delusion. His novels are often at the centre of political scandal.'' ZDF
''In contrast with Mankell, the warm-hearted psychologist of the individual, we find Geeraerts, a cold-blooded surgeon who lays bare the ills of a society. This thriller, so loyal to the genre that the irony and parody are barely perceptible, is relentless. The machinations of Opus Dei and dubious financial manoeuvres are deftly juxtaposed with descriptions of fine restaurants and nids d'amour.'' Tagesspiegel Berlin
''One of Geeraerts literary achievements is that such a shameless and baroque character as Savelkoul ends up attracting your sympathy as you read on. A revealing study of a very dark society.'' Facts Zurich
''Geeraerts exposes the mechanics of corruption, the abuse of power, political cynicism and the excesses triggered by religious delusion. His novels are often at the centre of political scandal.'' ZDF
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkly Humorous High Jinks in Antwerp,
By Feanor (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Public Prosecutor, The (Paperback)
Arch and knowing books are, thankfully, not a dime a dozen, but Jef Geeraerts's The Public Prosecutor is one such. Geeraerts doesn't have much time for organised religion, I gather from this fable, or for money-grubbing men or women, most of whom end up perishing in some gruesome fashion or the other. The protagonist of this parody of the paranoid thriller genre is the Public Prosecutor of Antwerp, a man who owes his position to his wife's noble family. He leads the usual life of an alpha male - he has a beautiful young mistress; his wealth does not stop him from seeking more; and, of course, he detests his wife, and hardly has any time for his sons. The wife is a deeply religious Catholic who wants one of her sons to enter Opus Dei, the usual villain in books involving religious skullduggery, and to that end is willing to sacrifice everything, including her husband. There are other unsavoury Opus Dei operatives with connections at the highest reaches of power - both financial and administrative - and there are sundry criminals out for revenge. None of the characters has any redeeming qualities but the Prosecutor, harried and hassled, ends up being strangely sympathetic. This is so earnest a book I cannot imagine Geeraerts wasn't grinning ironically all the while he was writing it; good fun.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not Worthy Of The Effort Of Reading It,
By
This review is from: Public Prosecutor, The (Paperback)
I really didn't like this book and can't recommend it as a good read.
Essentially, the plot concerns a corrupt public prosecutor in Antwerp. His wife is entangled with Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic religious society. Opus Dei wants her money. They will stop at little to get it, and we meet a large number of shadowy members of the organisation involved in the plot to obtain the money. The prosecutor [Albert] has a mistress of long-standing, who is cheating on him. Albert develops a relationship with a Polish maid in his house. Various people become involved in the story, either tangentially or in more direct roles. Frankly, I gave up caring who was who and what they were doing in the narrative. Only a very few of the characters are remotely sympathetic. The blurb suggests that we might grow to have sympathy for Albert as his predicaments grow: frankly, I've never been happier to see off a character. May I get one thing off my chest? I have no problem with explicit sex in narratives. I do have a problem when it is not just explicit, but also gratuitous as it is here. Having established that Albert is not of a puritanical disposition, it seems a bit excessive continually to return to accounts of his amorous encounters. OK, that may just be my taste. Of more concern is the fact that the book is so badly written. From the minor, but irritating reliance upon "inverted commas" which crop up with monotonous regularity, through the clumping dialogue and the sketchy or simply laughable descriptions of places and people, the impression is of a gifted amateur trying his hand at something beyond him. Geeraerts, however, is an established novelist and one might expect more of him. Might this be a translation issue, I wonder? The plot hinges on the shadowy role of Opus Dei. Here we are firmly in Dan Brown territory. But, and it really pains me to say this, Brown handles it better. Maybe dragging conspiracy/secret society half-truths through both a cultural and a linguistic transposition is too much to permit any degree of subtlety. What we are left with is both simplistic and paranoid [and, yes, I do know whereof I speak]. In summary- a book poorly written, poorly plotted and frankly not worth the effort of picking it up. I'd avoid it if I were you.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great psychological suspense,
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Public Prosecutor, The (Paperback)
Affluent Albert Savelkoul seems to live a near perfect life as the public prosecutor of Antwerp. He is affluent and influential due in part to the right marriage although his deeply religious wife Baroness Marie-Amandine de Vreux d'Alembourg detests him. His mistress Louise is beautiful and kind though he is considering a maid for that position. Finally he has a secret Swiss bank account concealed even from his spouse in which Albanian drug dealers donate in exchange for magically changing heroin into talc.
His wife arranges with the Opus Dei to destroy Albert. She gives them insider information that they use to blackmail the suddenly beleaguered Albert. The powerful Catholic group demands a cut starting with any inheritance he planned for his offspring. They also easily get into his Zurich account and wipe that out. Opus Dei operatives raise the ante further as they try to break Albert. He prays to God to allow him and his love to safely flee Belgium for Scotland. The premise behind this great psychological suspense is that a big fish in a small pond can be eaten alive by a bigger fish. Thus corrupt Albert makes the thriller work as he goes from affluence to stomp upon roach rather quickly when someone more powerful sends him back to the masses as another nonentity. Fans will relish this deep character driven tale of corruption and back stabbing as the norm especially for one climbing up the ladder of affluence and influence only to be thrown down by someone higher up. Jef Geeraerts provides a powerful indictment of western civilization circa 1999 as a "Bitter Lemon" whether it is Belgium, Scotland, or the United States. Harriet Klausner
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkly Humorous High Jinks in Antwerp,
By Feanor - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Public Prosecutor, The (Paperback)
Arch and knowing books are, thankfully, not a dime a dozen, but Jef Geeraerts's The Public Prosecutor is one such. Geeraerts doesn't have much time for organised religion, I gather from this fable, or for money-grubbing men or women, most of whom end up perishing in some gruesome fashion or the other. The protagonist of this parody of the paranoid thriller genre is the Public Prosecutor of Antwerp, a man who owes his position to his wife's noble family. He leads the usual life of an alpha male - he has a beautiful young mistress; his wealth does not stop him from seeking more; and, of course, he detests his wife, and hardly has any time for his sons. The wife is a deeply religious Catholic who wants one of her sons to enter Opus Dei, the usual villain in books involving religious skullduggery, and to that end is willing to sacrifice everything, including her husband. There are other unsavoury Opus Dei operatives with connections at the highest reaches of power - both financial and administrative - and there are sundry criminals out for revenge. None of the characters has any redeeming qualities but the Prosecutor, harried and hassled, ends up being strangely sympathetic. This is so earnest a book I cannot imagine Geeraerts wasn't grinning ironically all the while he was writing it; good fun.
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