A Philosophical Investigation

Notes

A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr is a love it or loathe it futuristic thriller.  The book won Kerr recognition as one of Granta’s “Best Young British Novelists”.

Kerr didn’t hold back on the philosophical or technological questions raised by his futuristic thriller and created an intellectually dark detective story.

It is just a pity that his version of the future was set in 2013.

For thousands of years, when a man took another man’s property it was called theft. But for almost a century, in certain parts of this world this sort of thing was legitimized by the name of Marxism. Tomorrow’s political philosophy might sanction murder, just as Marxism once sanctioned theft.

A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr

Publisher’s Synopsis

A terrifyingly prescient cult classic by the bestselling author of the Bernie Gunther series.

LONDON, 2013. Serial killings have reached epidemic proportions—even with the widespread government use of DNA detection, brain-imaging, and the “punitive coma.” Beautiful, whip-smart, and driven by demons of her own, Detective Isadora “Jake” Jacowicz must stop a murderer, code-named “Wittgenstein,” who has taken it upon himself to eliminate any man who has tested posi­tive for a tendency towards violent behavior—even if his victim has never committed a crime. He is a killer whose intellectual brilliance is matched only by his homicidal madness.

“Chilling…absorbing…part techno-thriller, part futuristic detective story, part diary of a serial killer.”—The New York Times Book Review

Read a full review of A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr at Track of the Cat.