Cave canem. A Felidae novel.
Cave canem. A Felidae novel. is a 1999 in Goldmann Verlag published crime - thriller of the German-Turkish writer Akif Pirinçci . It is the third part of the Felidae series.
content
shape
The book begins with a full title , the dedication reads:
"Cujo and Lolita
in memoriam"
Cujo is Akif Pirinçci's tomcat . Then an excerpt from the Book of Judges introduces the action:
"And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, took torches and turned one tail to the other and put a torch between two tails / and lit the torches and let the foxes run into the grain of the Philistines ..."
The plot then begins on page nine and ends on page 275. From page 277 onwards, seven comments , which refer to different passages in the text, explain the behavior of the cats in the book from a scientific point of view.
action
In addition to the aged Francis and his "can opener" Gustav Löbel, who now heads a well-known archaeological institute, Gustav's friend Archibald "Archie" Philip Purpur now also live in the old building on the first floor and the ethnologist Professor Amöbius Mars on the second floor. The latter suffers from a cat hair allergy and uses his free time to garden.
For a long time, Francis' precinct has been haunted by a mysterious series of murders, which he does not consider important enough to begin an investigation. The murderer not only rages among the cats, dogs are not spared from him either. The two already hostile camps suspect the murderer to be in the other party. Francis' old friend, Maine Coon tomcat Bluebeard, invites him one morning to a gathering of dogs and cats from the district to clarify the situation for the time being. Francis agrees, but wants to be back for a rendezvous with the Van Kätzin Roxy by noon.
On the way he is led by Bluebeard to the newest corpse, Roxy's. Francis vows to take revenge on the murderer, but the corpse puzzles him. Judging by the size of the bite marks, the killer could be both a medium-sized dog and a very large cat. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a previous fight, the wounds on the neck are clinically clean. Arrived at the meeting, Francis presented his views and deduced that nobody from the station is the murderer. Instead, they are rather new cats or dogs, possibly from the animal shelter on the outskirts of the district. He offers to take on the case, but withdraws the offer when the leader of the dogs, Pug Lady Sissi, insists on providing him with the German shepherd Hektor, a retired police dog .
Following his instinct, Francis leaves the meeting to pay a visit to the shelter. He wants to enter the home through a drained water pipe , but soon a dog's corpse blocks his way. He examines her and finds a soldier's tag on the collar that says " CAVE CANEM " (Latin for " watch out for the dog"). The way back is soon blocked by a pack of large dogs with the same badges and Francis is saved by Hector through a hole in the ceiling of the pipe. Still, Francis remains committed to never wanting to work in pairs to solve the case. He goes home, where he finds a young tomcat who looks very similar to him and sleeps next to Gustav. Francis goes to sleep, too, without worrying about it.
During the night, Francis has a nightmare . He looks clichéd gardener with straw hat , apron and rubber boots in an immaculate garden rake and takes between Hector, who apparently tracks and supported by the gardener mountains of human corpses dug up.
The following morning, the young tomcat turns out to be Francis' son, whose mother and siblings have already died as a result of their stray experience. Since he has no name, he is now only called "Junior" by Francis. Francis goes up to the first floor and enters Archie's apartment, who is sleeping off his drunkenness. Francis starts up the computer and enters the term "Cave Canem" in a search engine . He is puzzled that one of the links is from the UN . He reads the report and learns that in the former Yugoslavia there was a UN military dog squadron called “Cave Canem”, which was tasked with tracking down mines, bombs and mass graves and was under the command of General August Horche. Through a people search website, Francis learns that Horche lives only a few houses away from him. So he immediately goes where Horche in his immaculate garden is dressed like the cliché gardeners from Francis' nightmare right. Francis enters a barrack that Horche uses to store souvenirs and photos. There is also a huge aquarium in the middle , in which a swarm of piranhas lives. In the old pictures, next to Horche, there is always a young man whom Francis believes he knows but cannot identify. During his tour he accidentally throws down the ship's bell of the one-master “Gloria”, one of Horche's souvenirs, and calls both Horche and his dog onto the scene. He tries to escape through the roof window of the barracks, but just misses his target and falls into the aquarium. Before the piranhas can attack him, he is rescued again by Hector, Horche's dog.
Hector explains how he and his friends in the cave-canem troop saw the suffering in Yugoslavia and gradually became unable to endure it. They broke because of the terrible pictures and were brought to Germany by Horche in their terrible condition . According to Hector, these psychological wrecks would never have been capable of murder, himself included. Francis also sees this, but thinks that the troops might have brought the "spirit of war" with them. Hector shares his opinion and leads him to poodle lady Andromeda, a fortune teller who lives neglected in an overgrown garden. Once there, they watch a group of young male cats insulting the pacifist Andromeda. The leader of the troop, Junior, even wound her nose in the end. Francis intervenes and reads the riot act for the group. The tomcat shows remorse, but doesn't get away from Francis without a few scratches. Andromeda, who actually has a supernatural disposition, can “see through the eyes of the murderer”: she sees war events, terrible scenarios of slaughter and mass murder. At the end of the vision, Andromeda collapses, exhausted. Bluebeard arrives almost at the same time, reporting on the recent murder of Sissi. Due to the death of their handler, the dogs immediately declared war on the cats, and almost all the dogs and cats in the district meet in a monumental battle. Francis dives to the scene and solemnly declares that he is the murderer in order to gain more time for his investigation. On the run, he jumps on a car that fortunately turns out to be Archies, who comes with it from the disco. Francis goes with him to Archie's apartment, and while Archie falls into a deep sleep, Francis goes online and contacts the author of the UN article, a certain "Neptune". Neptune claims to know where the "war monster" is at the moment and would like to give Francis the address if he promises to kill it as soon as he finds it. Francis agrees and Neptune transmits the address, which obviously belongs to the house in whose garden Andromeda lives.
However, Francis cannot leave the house besieged by the others at first. He forges a plan with his son. While Junior runs out and attracts the attention of the besiegers, Francis stays in the house, only when they have all followed the fleeing Junior, Francis comes out and has a free run to the house of the monster. But he doesn't find Andromeda in the garden and so he decides to take matters into his own hands. He roams the house room by room. In a study he finds numerous objects on the subject of war: rifles, helmets, machetes and the like. There are also photos hanging from the ceiling depicting the scenarios Andromeda saw through the eyes of the murderer. Shortly afterwards the lifeless Andromeda falls on Francis, the killer had hung her on a chandelier . A photo pinned to Andromeda's belly catches Francis' attention. On it August Horche can be seen as the sea god Neptune . With that, Francis finally believes he has solved the mystery of the murderer's identity. However, Hector, who arrives shortly afterwards, does not want to believe in the guilt of his master, which he has always experienced kindly. Francis wants to provide him with indispensable proof and goes with him to the apartment of Archie, who is still soundly asleep. On the computer, he has the address from which the messages of the mysterious Neptune were sent back to be traced. To his surprise, this is by no means August Horche's address, but instead that of Francis' own home. Now Francis realizes that Amebius Mars is the old friend August Horches, whom he saw in the photos. Mars himself is an ethnologist, his specialty is war and using a large-scale animal experiment, he simulated the outbreak of a war. Francis also often saw Mars with a weeding claw from which he had removed one of the three prongs, the imprint must have looked like a bite wound.
Francis suggests calling the others, but Hector prefers to hunt down Mars immediately. Up in Mars' apartment all they find is a laptop with a picture of the cats and dogs gathering. Francis and Hector rush to the meeting place, where Amebius Mars awaits them. He reveals his plan, it was actually a large-scale animal experiment. In his anger, Hector attacks Mars, but is immediately hunted down and killed by him with the weeding claw. Although Hector warned him of Mars' "invincibility" with his last words, Francis also attacks Mars, who kicks him on Hector's corpse with a kick in the side. Mars leaves the place to go to sleep and finally the pain-plagued Francis, lying on the ground, plans the targeted killing of the murderer. All cats in the area should enter Mars' apartment, which should cause the allergy sufferer to choke. The reader does not find out whether the plan will be implemented. The plot ends with the phrase "beloved enemy" being repeated several times.
main characters
Cats
Francis
- With Cave Canem , Francis solves his third case.
Junior
- Junior, Francis' son, who is like an egg to the other, has his first appearance here.
Bluebeard
- Maine Coon tomcat Bluebeard is an old friend of Francis who gets him to take on the case.
Moses
- Moses is a Birman cat and leader of the district's cats. He called the council into being and sees himself as the political and diplomatic representative of all cats.
Roxy
- The Turkish Van Roxy had a date with Francis before she fell victim to Amebius Mars.
dogs
Hector
- The German shepherd Hektor was once a member of the cave-canem troop and was taken in by August Horche after his mental condition worsened. At the behest of Sissi, he is made available to Francis for his investigation and later falls victim to Amebius Mars.
Andromeda
- Andromeda is a poodle lady with supernatural abilities. After her mistress, an astrologer , died, she found shelter in the overgrown garden of the domicile of Amebius Mars, who later murdered her.
Sissi
- Pug Sissi is the leader of the dogs and thus their counterpart to Moses. Their murder by Amebius Mars brings the already brimming barrel to overflowing.
Hinz and Kunz
- The two greyhounds Hinz and Kunz are Sissi's successors.
People
Amebius Mars
- Professor Amöbius Mars is an ethnologist specializing in war and, as planned by him, sparked a war between dogs and cats through skillful murders.
August listen
- August Horche, General Out of Service, was in command of the cave-canem troops and was good friends with Amebius Mars. He brought the mentally ailing dogs to Germany and took Hector in, some of the others he gave to friends and some to the animal shelter.
Archie
- Archibald Philip Purpur, usually "Archie" for short, is a friend of Gustav who lives in the same house as Francis. Thanks to the Internet connection, which is important for Francis' investigation, his apartment becomes a prominent location in Cave Canem .
Gustav Löbel
- Thanks to Amebius Mars, Francis' master Gustav is in charge of a prestigious archaeological institute in Cave Canem .
criticism
“Part III of the Felidae series has again given me great reading pleasure. You can tell that Francis (together with his creator) has become older and more mature. By that I mean that an increase in writing style can be felt with every novel. Not that the first two parts are written worse, by no means, but Pirincci - like many writers - grows with each work. [...] It is always fascinating how Pirincci manages to deal with such serious and violent topics in a cat thriller, so that the reader has the feeling that this story comes across mainly as "funny". Therefore rated again for me as absolutely successful and therefore rewarded with 5 out of 5 stars! "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cave Canem on buchwelten.wordpress.com ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
