Sablasti u Breslauu

The year is 1919, Breslau (today's Wrocław) just after the First World War – a city in chaos, inflation, political unrest and moral decay. Famous criminal assistant Eberhard Mock, a cynical, intelligent and ruthless police officer, faces the worst case of his career.

On a September morning, two high school students find a macabre sight on one of the islets in the Oder flood: the mutilated bodies of four sailors. Next to the corpses lies a message addressed to Mock - threatening, cryptic, written in a way that challenges him personally. The murders are ritualistic, brutal, with elements of occult or psychopathic madness. The dead are mutilated in a similar, grisly way – fear spreads through the city of a serial killer who hunts in the shadows.

Mock, known for his immoral methods (blackmail, corruption, connections with the underworld), takes over the investigation. He is a cynical pragmatist who does not believe in ghosts or spectres, but the case drags him into the dark corners of Breslau: brothels, secret societies, decadent cabarets, criminal circles and political intrigues of post-war Germany. In parallel, his past is revealed – Mock is not just a detective, but a man with many sins, who fears that the message is not accidental.

The investigation leads through a labyrinth of clues: witnesses from the port, naval stories, possible connections with occult sects or revenge from the past. Mock uses everything – bribes, threats, violence – to get to the truth. The novel is full of the atmosphere of Weimar decadence: prostitutes, alcohol, drugs, corruption, anti-Semitism and fear of the "other". Mock faces not only the murderer, but also the ghosts of his own conscience and the city sinking into the abyss.

Krajewski masterfully builds a noir atmosphere: dark, rainy Breslau becomes almost a character – full of the ghosts of the past, war and evil. The novel is a mixture of classic detective procedure, psychological thriller and historical fresco. Mock is not a hero - he is a cynic who survives in a world without morals, where ghosts are not only dead, but living sins.