The Pharmacist by Ingrid Noll

Beware of crime novels narrated in the first person.  Actually I sort of like first person narration.  Being inside the head of a character and seeing the world from their perspective makes for interesting reading.  Then again, in a crime novel the head of a narrator who is also a criminal (or someone with potentially criminal intentions--however inadvertent) can be a treacherous place and on more than one occasion I've not enjoyed the view.  With two earlier novels by Ingrid Noll under my belt I've come to expect unusual stories and unusual women telling them.  Strangely you almost find yourself sympathetic towards the characters even while they shock you with their thoughts and actions.  The Pharmacist (Die Apothekerin translated by Ian Mitchell) is no different.

Once again this is a story where the point isn't to suss out the criminal.  The answers the reader is looking for isn't 'who' but 'why'.  The Pharmacist is sort of like a train wreck waiting to happen.  You can see it coming but you're just not sure how bad it's going to be.  And Noll takes a different angle this time around.  I was thinking as I was reading how much this was a cat and mouse story, but it took a while to decide who was the cat and who was the mouse.

Hella Moormann is a murderess.  Well, at the tender age of twelve she accidentally had a run in with a classmate that left him dead.  It truly was an accident and once she begins spinning her tale you forget all about that nasty business when she was a child.  Instead you become immersed in the story of her personal life.  Hella is one of those women who can't help choosing men who need help.  She falls for men who are having a harder time in life than she is.

"While my improper escapades never did come to the attention of my teachers or classmates, I was unable to hide them from my horrified family.  Without a doubt, I broke my father's heart at the time.  His innocent blonde child was hanging about with queer fish and lame ducks who would have been better kept out of his sight.  And, to make matters worse, I didn't grow out of this even during adolescence.  Just as, when I was small, I would unscrew my dolls' legs in order to patch them up again, so later on, I would trawl up men who had gone off the straight and narrow and try to restore them.  It helped me get over my own problems better if I had the strength to redeem strangers."

Her latest cause is Levin Graber, a handsome dental student.  Hella falls for him hard, but it becomes quickly apparent that Hella, a successful professional woman, has chosen a charming but needy (and ultimately lazy, selfish and deceitful) prospective partner.  Hella works as a pharmacist.  While her university friends have all married and started families Hella is still looking.  She wants marriage, a home and a family and looks to Levin to provide it.  Levin is a poor student with a rich grandfather, who wants Levin to finish his studies before giving him any money.  And when one day Levin discovers a set of glass bottles in Hella's apartment, antique bottles containing poison, he begins forming a plan in his mind where he and Hella can get rich quick and have all the nice things in life with little effort from either of them.  There's a twist, however.  Conveniently provided by Levin's grandfather who puts a clause in his will naming Hella the sole beneficiary...if she marries Levin.  If not, the money goes to charity.

Matters are complicated when an old friend, just out of jail, returns.  Levin owes him money and Dieter is determined to get it back.  His wife Margot had been working for Levin's grandfather, but Margot's slatternly ways get on Hella's nerves.  And then there's the question of what Dieter ever saw in Margot and why he married her--and worse why she's trying to lure Levin away.  I don't want to give away any other details of the story, but Noll creates a rather claustrophobic love triangle where love turns to scorn.  And then things begin to get messy.  

Hella tells her story from a hospital bed.  Her roommate, Rosemarie Hirte (who was the narrator in Noll's Hell Hath No Fury), is an eager listener.  Each night Hella shares a new installment as she slowly reveals to Rosemarie and the reader just what happened to Levin, Dieter and Margot and why she has ended up in the hospital.  It's a clever way of telling a story since the reader can glean from Hella's visitors as well as her building of the tale just what happened.  Although macabre in tone, Noll never fails to interject her signature acerbic wit. 

It's a pity more books aren't available in English from this author, who is referred to in Germany as the "Queen of Crime".  I think my favorite of her books remains the first I read, Head Count.  It's thanks to Caroline that I was first introduced to Noll, when she wrote about The Pharmacist just last year.  Now that I've finished her novels I'll have to look for a readalike--maybe more Ruth Rendell or Minette Walters?  Noll is quite similar but she has a style quite unique and all her own.   

Comments

[Caroline]

I liked this a lot as well. It's sad that she seems out of fashion, even in Germany. People read Fitzek and the like, maybe the books are gripping but they are badly written. Noll writes crime but it's literary crime. I wonder if Rendell is less read too.

[Liz F]

INgrid Noll sounds intriguing. It has been a while since I read a psychological crime novel - I tend to find them too chilly for my tastes - but occasionally I quite enjoy them. I will have to look and see if the library have acquired any of her books - I know they didn't have any last time I looked a year or so ago but I can always hope!
I always preferred Minette Walters to Ruth Rendell or her alter ego Barbara Vine for some reason (although I like the Insp Wexford books) - too high a chill factor I think!

[Stefanie]

What a fun way to tell the story, from the main character after the fact. I wonder if something like that is harder to do in crime fiction than the more tradition straightforward telling?

[Danielle]

Do you know if she is still writing books? I've only been able to find the three I've read and had to buy used copies as they are not in print in the US (not sure she was ever even published here). She's very good--suspenseful but with something more to them. I'll have to go back to Ruth Rendell, I guess, and pick up one of my unread books by her.

[Danielle]

I think it must be the voyeur in me that likes books like these. I love psychological crime novels--but then I read a variety of mysteries--I sort of like them all (except the really violent and bloody stuff). I think she's OOP in the UK, but hopefully your library added something in the interim. I've not read anything by Minettel Walters for years, though I did listen to one of her more recent books on audio and quite enjoyed it. Ruth Rendell is one of my all time favorites--I've read quite a few of her Vine (nearly all of those)/Rendell novels but strangely have not yet gotten to the Wexfords--I did finally start buying them, though. Her books are chilly, though, you're right--often a little stark and filled with morally questionable characters.

[Danielle]

She certainly loses nothing in not writing from the immediacy of the crime. I'll have to think about this one. I suppose as this is not a traditional mystery/crime novel the moving back and forth in time doesn't seem to make the story suffer. If I recall correctly, this is the only one of her books where the story is told sort of retrospectively.

[LizF]

It appears that the one copy of an Ingrid Noll book that our county library possessed has vanished so it looks as though I am not destined to read anything of hers anytime soon!

[Kathy]

I'm very intrigued by this story--it sounds quite different to what I usually read. I will have to see if I can get my hands on anything by her at my library. Like you, I like most sorts of crime and mystery as long as they're not too gory.

[Caroline]

Yes indeed, she is still publishing. But you don't hear anything about her here.

[Danielle]

I hate it when that happens. Maybe you'll come across her in a second hand shop. My copies are used and my library didn't carry her work either. Pity she's not more readily available.

[Danielle]

I have a hard time reading violent stories, too. I don't like the gore. I like suspense, but not when an author is obviously toying with your emotions or goes for the ick factor. Whenever I read a particularly messy crime novel I usually need to follow it up with a cozy mystery!