The Pledge

Set in a small town in Switzerland, The Pledge centers around the murder of a young girl and the detective who promises the victims mother he will find the perpetrator. After deciding the wrong man has been arrested for the crime, the detective lays a trap for the real killerwith all the patience of a master fisherman. But cruel turns of plot conspire to make him pay dearly for his pledge. Here Friedrich Drrenmatt conveys his brilliant ear for dialogue and a devastating sense of timing and suspense. Joel Agees skilled translation effectively captures the various voices in the original, as well as its chilling conclusion. One of Drrenmatts most diabolically imagined and constructed novels, The Pledge was adapted for the screen in 2000 in a film directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson.