'Mesmerising and utterly absorbing' New York Times

'A magnificent storyteller' Der Spiegel

A retired small-town doctor takes a garden axe to his cruel wife.

A woman laces her brother's food with barbiturates.

Two men steal a priceless Japanese tea bowl with brutal consequences.

What drives a person to commit a crime?

Our narrator knows that behind every misdeed is a story waiting to be told. In this collection of chilling cases, a nameless lawyer recounts the love, obsession, selfishness and despair that influenced his clients' irrevocable choices.

Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Crime blends fiction with real life, each story a revealing, unsettling insight into what may compel a person to act beyond the law.

"Mesmerizing . . . a slim, utterly absorbing collection of 11 stories plucked from [von Schirach's] legal career and told in a cool, patient voice that immediately draws the reader in" - New York Times

"Praise for Ferdinand von Schirach" - -

"Addictive . . . fascinating" - The Spectator

"Ice-cool, effortlessly classy prose" - Observer

"Tantalising and disturbing in equal measure" - Guardian

"An exceptional prose stylist" - New York Times

"A magnificent storyteller" - Der Spiegel

"Psychologically raw . . . delivered in a crisp translation by Katharina Hall, his unfussy prose is icily effective . . . it suggests that all justice systems are flawed, that they are all just processes. And, with immense empathy, von Schirach's stories show what happens to people when they are processed." - Financial Times

"The stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . this is an unsettling, affecting, extremely powerful book. Highly recommended" - Irish Times

"An impressive page-turner with substance and bite" - Bookmunch