A Grasp of Kaspar - Michael Baxandall

Aside from the negligible thriller elements reminiscent of Le Carré and Buchan promised by the publisher and the circumstances of the novel - Baxandall's only novel being first published now after the author's death - there is an intriguing historical premise nonetheless behind A Grasp of Kaspar that seems an appropriate exploration for a renowned historian, but it's one unfortunately that comes to overwhelm any drive behind the story or genuine exploration of the characters.

The mystery of former Nazis now running a textile business involved in a mysterious operation across the border to Switzerland in the immediate post-war years doesn't really establish itself as a purposeful or indeed a credible investigation. Briggs, a writer and historian, has been asked by an American friend interested in his business investments to follow up on some financial rumours and find out some information about a textile company being managed by Kasper Leinberger.  With not a great deal to go on and some reluctance to be involved in what might be considered insider dealing, Briggs nonetheless undertakes a journey around the Lake Constance, Alpine region of Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland - never really finding out anything concrete, but in becoming involved with Leinberger's wife and finding some mysterious behaviour in Kasper's past and present-day activities, it's enough to keep him probing further.

More than the investigation however, there's a historical element behind Briggs's gathering of information, his sifting through the historical facts and witness accounts, drawing lines between relevant geographical locations, attempting through them to gain a picture of a man that he has never met caught up in the political and financial dealings of the region. There are however so many layers of mystery lying over the past - much of what occurred during the war years evidently remaining unspoken - that any meaningful grasp of who Kasper Leinberger is must be incomplete, leaving Briggs metaphorically wandering in the mists of time.

There is a nice moody Graham Greene feel to the post-war/post-affair melancholy of Briggs's situation and his relationship with Kasper's wife, the enigmatically off-screen Kasper becoming a kind of Third Man, and if the writing style feels old-fashioned in this respect it's at least in keeping with the period and feels authentic. The novel makes some interesting observations then about the nature of constructing historical theories, but the distanced third-person narrative and the tone of academic rumination taking precedence over plot never allow us to really get beneath Briggs's motivations nor indeed present a compelling reason to read A Grasp of Kasper.