(Drivebycuriosity) - How can we prevent crime? The Italian physicist Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909 ) believed that crime could be prevented because a "born criminal" could be identified by physical defects ( wikipedia). Phillip Kerr based his novel "Philosophical Investigation" on some of Lombroso`s ideas. The book was published in the year 1992 but set in the year 2013; so the novel is slightly futurist, but it is not the usual science fiction ( amazon).
The European Union had developed a program, where potentially murderers were identified by brain scan. Their data were collected with code-names in a database, the "Lombroso System". One of these "Lombrosos", code name Wittgenstein, hacked into the system, deleted his own data and started to murder the others, whom he calls brothers.
"Philosophical Investigation" is a complex crime novel. The title refers to the real Wittgenstein´s book "Philosophical Investigations", published posthumously in 1953. The text is filled with a lot philosophical musings by Wittgenstein and his colleagues, but also by Sigmund Freud and others.
The novel is set in a run-down London and in Cambridge where inspector Isadora (Jake) Jakowicz tries to catch "Wittgenstein", using scientific methods and female intuition. Inserted in the plot are parts (written in first person) where "Wittgenstein" tales the events from his perspective and elaborates his philosphy.
The novel is smart & intellectual, spiced with some humor and sexual details. Even though the plot has some logical flaws and a lame ending "Philosophical Investigation" still stands above the average serial killer novels.
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