The Adventures of Dagobert Trostler, Vienna’s Sherlock Holmes, by Balduin Groller
This book of short stories about the exploits of Dagobert Trostler—“Vienna’s Sherlock Holmes”—has been a bestselling classic in Austria and Germany for more than a hundred years, and now is published in English for the first time. Man-about-town and amateur detective Dagobert is often the houseguest of Andreas Grumbach, owner of a mill and president of the bank, and Grumbach’s lovely wife, Frau Violet. In the smoking-room, safe from being overheard by the staff, the trio discuss Dagobert’s feats of criminal detection.
Independently wealthy and intensely curious, Dagobert has deep insight into human nature, and this is his strength. Today he would be considered an excellent criminal profiler. In one story, which concerns a cheater at cards, Dagobert tells Grumbach and Frau Violet that “One of our old, well-to-do businessmen wouldn’t engage in such things. There would be too much at stake. No, it must be a devil-may-care rascal, some lost son.” When Dagobert finally discovers the identity of the culprit (who precisely matches the profile), he doesn’t have him arrested and jailed; instead, as is typical, Dagobert doles out the penance himself. The cheater must never enter the club again, and he must pay five thousand crowns as a club donation.
You see, in turn-of-the-century Viennese high society, public scandal was to be avoided. In another story, Dagobert’s punishment of a female lawbreaker is her banishment from Vienna; while in yet another story, he facilitates the capture of a criminal by the police “without disturbing the party, and thereby spoiling the festive mood.” Dagobert’s renown for his detective work is so great that he even has pupils—he teaches a class in the detective school of Vienna’s criminal investigation department. I love the book’s archaic language and the formal behavior of the characters. Reading this book was an enjoyable escape into another world. I highly recommend it for any lover of Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation from the publisher.