A respected professor is dead - shot in a crowded Zurich restaurant, in front of dozens of witnesses. The murderer calmly turned himself in to the police. So why has he now hired a lawyer to clear his name? And why has he chosen the drink-soaked, disreputable Spät to defend him? As he investigates, Spät finds himself obsessed, drawn ever deeper into a case of baffling complexity until he reaches a deadly conclusion: justice can be restored only by a crime. This is a captivating neo-noir classic from the master of the genre. The Execution of Justice is a dark, wicked satire on the legal system and a disturbing, if ambivalent, allegory on guilt, justice, violence and morality.

"The Swiss master of the astounding plot" - Sunday Times Crime Club

"It's not that Dürrenmatt always took the road less chosen, more that he carved out an entirely different and perverse path through the literary undergrowth" - Crime Time

"The novel has the most wonderful collection of strange and charismatic characters. Ingenious... original... challenging" - Nudge Books

"A dark, wicked satire on the legal system and a disturbing, if ambivalent, allegory on guilt, justice, violence and morality" - Publishers Weekly

"Audacious... Dürrenmatt's compelling handling of his favorite themes--the confusion of criminal and victim, the slippery relation between justice and morality, the guilty burden of social responsibility--makes Spat's funny, sad nightmare less like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd than like The Fall or The Crying of Lot 49" - Kirkus

"Dürrenmatt has the gift to create unforgettable characters within a few lines" - LA Times