Man-eater

A DEAD WOMAN IN A TIGER CAGE, A HUMAN BEAST AND ONE UNWITTING DETECTIVE…

In the bleak early spring of 1954, unwitting detective Ota Fink travels to a town in the northern borderlands. In the local zoo, where he goes to visit his army friend Vilda Novák, he discovers that many animals can be deadly… but someone in the background, the one who controls the beasts, is far more dangerous.

But who is the real man-eating beast responsible for the death of the young keeper? A circus strongman, an accountant resembling Queen Nefertiti, an elephant lover, a lisping bird keeper, a bespectacled vet, an old sausage seller, a rococo-style cashier, or even Vilda himself, the promotions officer and occasional night watchman? Only Remus the tiger is innocent in all this, like any murder weapon.

The official investigators seem to be on the wrong track, and Ota Fink has only Saturday and Sunday to uncover the culprit. Can fifteen-year-old princess Jana Šimšíková, confined to a wheelchair by polio, help him? And can Ota identify the murderer among the zoo's eccentric employees before he too ends up in the jaws of a beast?

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This new edition of the legendary detective story includes a retelling of the author's memories of his real-life experiences working at a zoo.